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You found the perfect book influencer. Their audience is exactly right. You sent what you thought was a great pitch…and then? Nothing. Before you assume influencers hate pitches—or that your book just isn’t interesting enough—there’s something you need to know: your pitch probably had about five seconds to make the cut. Influencer inboxes have become absolute war zones, packed with review requests, generic PR emails, mass pitches, and books that have nothing to do with their audience. And after seeing some surprisingly bad outreach—including pitches sent by professional publicists—we knew it was time to talk about what actually gets an influencer’s attention. In this episode, Penny Sansevieri and Amy Cornell break down the book pitching mistakes that can kill your chances before an influencer ever gets to the second paragraph. We’re talking mismatched genres, copy-and-paste emails, BCC blasts, unrealistic deadlines, complicated asks, unsolicited books, and pitches that make it painfully obvious the sender has no idea who they’re contacting. But this isn’t just a list of what not to do. We’ll show you what makes a strong influencer pitch stand out: targeting fewer people more strategically, demonstrating that you actually know their content and audience, making your ask ridiculously easy to understand, tracking your outreach, following up professionally, and building familiarity before you need something. We’re also tackling one of the fastest ways to destroy trust: trying to control reviews, dictate what someone says, or expect five stars because you sent a free book. Influencer marketing works because readers trust these creators. The minute your outreach threatens that trust, you’ve lost the very thing you were hoping to tap into. If you’re tired of sending book pitches into a black hole, this episode will help you rethink your approach—and build an influencer outreach strategy you can use for this launch, your backlist, and every book that comes next. Plus, grab our pre-pitch checklist in the show notes before you send another email. Listen now, subscribe, and share this episode with an author who’s wondering why nobody is answering their pitches. Send us your feedback! Order Penny's latest book, Think Local Sell Global and start building a book sales strategy you have more control over! 📱 Text Penny & Amy: Send your marketing questions, show feedback, and episode ideas. Text PODCAST to (888) 402-8940 to join and get new episode alerts. Save our number! ⭐ Enjoying the show? Please follow the podcast and leave us a review on Apple Podcasts or Spotify. Your reviews help more authors discover the show! 💬 Don't use Apple Podcasts or Spotify? Email your review to [email protected] and we'll feature it on our website.

Readers are becoming more skeptical—and authors are getting caught in the fallout. Even if you’ve never used AI to write a single word, your book marketing can still trigger the same suspicion readers increasingly bring to generic, overly polished, or strangely interchangeable content. Your Amazon description. Your author bio. Your reviews. Your website. Even your author photo. In this episode, we’re digging into a growing challenge in book marketing: the reader trust problem created by AI—and what authors can do about it. Readers are making incredibly fast credibility decisions when they discover a book. Does this author feel real? Does this book seem legitimate? Do the reviews sound believable? Does the author’s expertise hold up when I look beyond the Amazon page? And increasingly, polished isn’t enough. We break down the subtle signals that can make an author brand feel manufactured, including vague bios, generic positioning, suspiciously perfect reviews, inflated authority claims, stock-sounding copy, and branding that doesn’t match the person readers discover elsewhere online. More importantly, we explain how to fix it. The answer isn’t adding “100% human-written” to everything you publish—or deliberately making your marketing less professional. It’s building a brand that contains something AI has a much harder time manufacturing: specificity, personality, perspective, history, and proof. We’ll talk about: Why generic marketing language is becoming a credibility problemThe quick “trust test” readers perform before buyingHow reviews can strengthen—or quietly undermine—reader confidenceWhy your author bio needs evidence, not just impressive-sounding claimsHow consistency across Amazon, Goodreads, your website, social media, and search builds credibilityWhy strong opinions and specific details make your marketing more memorableHow podcasts, events, media mentions, awards, endorsements, and community involvement create third-party trust signalsWhat not to do when trying to prove that you’re a “real” authorBecause in an increasingly AI-saturated marketplace, one of the strongest competitive advantages you have is being unmistakably, specifically you. If your marketing feels polished but forgettable—or you’re wondering how readers decide which authors they trust—this episode will help you strengthen the signals that make people stop, believe, and ultimately buy. Send us your feedback! Order Penny's latest book, Think Local Sell Global and start building a book sales strategy you have more control over! 📱 Text Penny & Amy: Send your marketing questions, show feedback, and episode ideas. Text PODCAST to (888) 402-8940 to join and get new episode alerts. Save our number! ⭐ Enjoying the show? Please follow the podcast and leave us a review on Apple Podcasts or Spotify. Your reviews help more authors discover the show! 💬 Don't use Apple Podcasts or Spotify? Email your review to [email protected] and we'll feature it on our website.

Fall has a sneaky way of turning perfectly reasonable authors into frantic marketers. Suddenly Q4 is here, holiday promotions are everywhere, Black Friday is looming, and it feels like you should be launching ads, pitching bookstores, posting more, discounting your book, growing your email list—and somehow doing all of it before Thanksgiving. We have a different suggestion: stop adding things and figure out what’s actually working. In this episode, Penny Sansevieri and Amy Cornell walk through a practical fall book marketing reset designed to help you finish the year strategically instead of throwing more time and money at tactics that aren’t producing anything. We’re digging into one of the biggest problems in book marketing: confusing activity with progress. Just because you’ve been doing something for months doesn’t mean you should keep doing it. And walking away from an ineffective strategy isn’t giving up—it’s good marketing. But how do you know what’s worth keeping? We talk about the signals authors should be watching for before the sales show up: genuine responses to pitches, bookstore and library interest, stronger engagement from the right readers, email activity, opportunities that begin opening up, and other signs that your positioning is starting to connect. Then we turn to one of the most important—and most overlooked—pieces of your fall marketing strategy: your Amazon book page. Because you can drive all the traffic in the world to a book, but if the retail page doesn’t build confidence and make the book easy to understand and buy, the rest of your marketing has to work twice as hard. And we’re giving you a simple 90-minute fall marketing audit you can do right now: 30 minutes to review. 30 minutes to eliminate. 30 minutes to reallocate. We’ll show you what to look for, what may be worth cutting, and how to choose just one to three smart experiments to run between now and the end of the year—without turning Q4 into a marketing free-for-all. Because sometimes the smartest thing you can do for your book isn’t more marketing. It’s better marketing. If this episode helps you rethink your fall strategy, subscribe to the show, share it with an author who may be heading into Q4 overwhelm, and leave us a review so more authors can find the podcast. Send us your feedback! Order Penny's latest book, Think Local Sell Global and start building a book sales strategy you have more control over! 📱 Text Penny & Amy: Send your marketing questions, show feedback, and episode ideas. Text PODCAST to (888) 402-8940 to join and get new episode alerts. Save our number! ⭐ Enjoying the show? Please follow the podcast and leave us a review on Apple Podcasts or Spotify. Your reviews help more authors discover the show! 💬 Don't use Apple Podcasts or Spotify? Email your review to [email protected] and we'll feature it on our website.

You’re running ads. You’re posting. You landed a podcast interview. Maybe you even got some media coverage. So why aren’t more people buying the book? Because getting seen and getting chosen are two very different things. In this episode, we’re digging into one of the most misunderstood parts of book marketing: the gap between visibility and reader confidence. Authors are often taught to judge every marketing effort by one brutal question: Did it sell books? But readers rarely move that quickly. They notice a book, encounter it again, check the reviews, look at the author, read the description, hear a recommendation—and somewhere along the way, enough signals stack up that buying suddenly feels like an easy decision. That distinction matters, because a marketing campaign can be doing exactly what it should be doing long before the royalty report catches up. We’ll talk about why authors—especially newer authors or those still building an audience—can sabotage perfectly good marketing by abandoning strategies too quickly, chasing the next tactic, or assuming that visibility without an immediate sale equals failure. Then we break down the specific signals that make readers feel confident enough to buy. For fiction authors, that means immediately communicating genre, tone, emotional payoff, and reader expectations through your cover, positioning, book description, reviews, and overall presentation. If readers can’t quickly tell what kind of experience your book promises, even great visibility may not convert. For nonfiction authors, confidence looks different. Readers are asking: Why should I trust you with this problem? Your author bio, expertise, credentials, endorsements, media appearances, positioning, reviews, and consistency all help answer that question. And memoir has its own challenge. Readers may care deeply about your story—but the marketing still needs to communicate why that story matters to them. We discuss how to move beyond “this happened to me” and identify the emotional connection, insight, transformation, or takeaway that makes a stranger want to spend several hours inside your experience. We’ll also look at the marketing metrics authors routinely undervalue: meaningful engagement, reviews, newsletter growth, recommendations, repeat exposure, media mentions, and other indicators that reader confidence is building even before sales noticeably increase. Because successful book marketing isn’t about finding one magical tactic that instantly triggers a purchase. It’s about giving the right reader enough reasons to finally say, “Yes, this is the book I want.” If you’ve been marketing your book and wondering whether any of it is actually working, this episode will help you diagnose where the buying decision may be breaking down—and what to strengthen before you throw out your entire marketing plan. Subscribe to The Book Marketing Tips and Author Success Podcast, share this episode with an author who needs to hear it, and leave us a review wherever you listen. Send us your feedback! Order Penny's latest book, Think Local Sell Global and start building a book sales strategy you have more control over! 📱 Text Penny & Amy: Send your marketing questions, show feedback, and episode ideas. Text PODCAST to (888) 402-8940 to join and get new episode alerts. Save our number! ⭐ Enjoying the show? Please follow the podcast and leave us a review on Apple Podcasts or Spotify. Your reviews help more authors discover the show! 💬 Don't use Apple Podcasts or Spotify? Email your review to [email protected] and we'll feature it on our website.

What if the next author scam isn’t someone trying to steal your money—but someone pretending to be you? Author scams are getting far more sophisticated. We’re no longer just seeing the obvious “Hollywood wants your book” emails or fake marketing offers. Scammers are creating convincing author profiles, copying real content, borrowing established reputations, and reaching out to readers and other writers using identities that aren’t theirs. And you absolutely do not need to be a bestselling author to become a target. In this episode, we dig into the disturbing rise of author impersonation and reputation theft, including how scammers identify authors who appear credible, active, or successful enough to exploit. Sometimes all it takes is a new book, an award, a media mention, a growing social account, or another visible win for your name to land on someone’s radar. We’ll show you how these scams often unfold: flattering outreach, suspicious collaboration invitations, fake book clubs, anthology opportunities, promises of exposure, questionable Amazon “optimization” offers, and messages claiming that another trusted author or industry professional personally recommended them. That last one is especially dangerous. Scammers know that borrowing someone else’s credibility can get authors to lower their guard. But this episode isn’t just about spotting scams. We’re talking about how to make your author identity significantly harder to steal in the first place. You’ll learn why authors should secure their primary domain—and reasonable variations of it—claim important social media handles even if they aren’t actively using every platform, maintain consistent branding across the web, and use an email address connected to their own domain instead of relying entirely on Gmail or another generic provider. We also explain why your author website is becoming an increasingly important verification tool. Someone who receives a message supposedly from you should be able to quickly find your official website, confirm your real contact information, and determine whether the person reaching out is actually you. And if you discover an impersonator? Don’t simply delete the message or account and move on. Screenshot it. Save the URLs. Document what happened. Report the profile. Preserve the evidence before it disappears. Your author name is more than a byline. It’s your reputation, your credibility, and the trust you’ve built with readers—and as your visibility grows, protecting that identity needs to become part of your book marketing strategy. Listen now, then send this episode to another author who needs to know this is happening. And if you have a scam, suspicious pitch, or author-marketing question you’d like us to tackle on the show, text PODCAST to 888-402-8940. You can also leave us a review wherever you listen—it helps more authors discover the show. Send us your feedback! Order Penny's latest book, Think Local Sell Global and start building a book sales strategy you have more control over! 📱 Text Penny & Amy: Send your marketing questions, show feedback, and episode ideas. Text PODCAST to (888) 402-8940 to join and get new episode alerts. Save our number! ⭐ Enjoying the show? Please follow the podcast and leave us a review on Apple Podcasts or Spotify. Your reviews help more authors discover the show! 💬 Don't use Apple Podcasts or Spotify? Email your review to [email protected] and we'll feature it on our website.

Imagine spending $44,000 on a book launch and selling three books. Or generating 20,000 views and walking away with three preorders. Those aren’t hypothetical numbers—and they expose one of the biggest problems in book marketing right now: attention is not the same thing as buyer intent. Authors are constantly told they need more visibility, more followers, more views, more reach, more buzz. But what happens when all of those numbers go up…and book sales don’t? In this episode, we’re unpacking some eye-opening book launch stories and looking at what went wrong—not to pile on the authors involved, but because there are lessons here that every author needs to understand. We talk about why a massive audience can still be the wrong audience, why follower counts and video views can create a very expensive illusion of success, and why even traditionally published authors can get caught assuming that a big platform, a major publisher, or an expensive marketing campaign will automatically create demand. Because visibility only works when there’s a clear bridge between who is seeing your book and why they should care about it. We’ll dig into: Why reach without reader alignment rarely convertsThe difference between an audience and an actual book-buying audienceWhy launch month is far too late to start building reader interestWhat authors should really be asking when a marketing company promises impressive numbersThe reality of influencer campaigns—and when those big view counts actually matterWhy positioning, messaging, and reader relevance need to come before amplificationHow podcast guesting can create stronger, higher-trust visibility when the audience fit is rightAnd perhaps most importantly, we talk about the question authors should be asking before spending another dollar on marketing: Will this put my book in front of more people—or more of the right people? Because you can go viral. You can rack up thousands of views. You can have an enormous following. And you can still sell three books. If you’re ready to stop chasing impressive-looking numbers and start focusing on the marketing that actually gives readers a reason to buy, this episode is for you. Send us your feedback! Order Penny's latest book, Think Local Sell Global and start building a book sales strategy you have more control over! 📱 Text Penny & Amy: Send your marketing questions, show feedback, and episode ideas. Text PODCAST to (888) 402-8940 to join and get new episode alerts. Save our number! ⭐ Enjoying the show? Please follow the podcast and leave us a review on Apple Podcasts or Spotify. Your reviews help more authors discover the show! 💬 Don't use Apple Podcasts or Spotify? Email your review to [email protected] and we'll feature it on our website.

Are Barnes & Noble author events going away? Not exactly. But the days of walking into a bookstore, asking for a signing, and expecting the store to supply the audience are rapidly disappearing—and that may actually be good news for authors who know how to create a compelling event. In this episode, we unpack what’s really happening with Barnes & Noble events and the much bigger shift taking place in bookstore marketing. Because bookstores still want authors. They still want events. What they increasingly don’t want is a table, a stack of books, and an author waiting for random shoppers to stop by. The question authors need to answer has changed from “Will you host me?” to “Why will people come?” And that distinction matters. We talk about why bookstores need authors to approach events as business partnerships rather than free promotional opportunities, what makes an event worth putting on the calendar, and why the traditional solo signing is often one of the weakest formats you can pitch. Then we get into what does work. For fiction authors, that might mean creating a multi-author genre night, themed reader event, or conversation that gives fans more than one reason to attend. For nonfiction authors, it could be a workshop, panel, demonstration, or locally relevant discussion tied to an issue your community already cares about. We also break down what belongs in a strong Barnes & Noble event pitch—including the piece far too many authors leave out: your plan for getting people there. That means local media, community calendars, book clubs, organizations, newsletters, social promotion, partnerships, and the local relationships you’ve already started building. And if Barnes & Noble isn’t saying yes yet? We explain why libraries, indie bookstores, book clubs, community organizations, and smaller venues can become the proof that makes the next bookstore much more willing to take a chance on you. Because local book marketing compounds. One successful event can lead to another. Booksellers talk. Librarians talk. Communities remember authors who show up prepared, promote professionally, and bring something worthwhile to the room. If bookstore events are part of your marketing plan, this episode will help you stop thinking like an author asking for space—and start thinking like an event partner a bookstore actually wants to work with. If you find this episode useful, subscribe, share it with an author who’s trying to land more bookstore events, and leave us a review wherever you listen to podcasts. Send us your feedback! Order Penny's latest book, Think Local Sell Global and start building a book sales strategy you have more control over! 📱 Text Penny & Amy: Send your marketing questions, show feedback, and episode ideas. Text PODCAST to (888) 402-8940 to join and get new episode alerts. Save our number! ⭐ Enjoying the show? Please follow the podcast and leave us a review on Apple Podcasts or Spotify. Your reviews help more authors discover the show! 💬 Don't use Apple Podcasts or Spotify? Email your review to [email protected] and we'll feature it on our website.

Every so often, book marketing needs a good cleanout. So in this episode, we’re doing our own book marketing “In & Out” list—the strategies, habits, and author expectations we’re happily carrying forward, and the ones we think need to be shown the door. And yes, we have opinions. Out: stuffing keywords everywhere they’ll fit. Trying to show up on every social media platform because someone told you that you “have to.” Obsessing over follower counts that look impressive but don’t necessarily sell books. Treating launch week like your one and only shot at success. And spending money on flashy marketing assets simply because they look like marketing. In: reader-first copy that actually sounds human. Clear book positioning. Choosing marketing channels based on where your readers are—not where everyone else is shouting the loudest. Building reviews, visibility, and word of mouth over time. Growing a newsletter and reader base you can bring with you from book to book. And making smarter decisions about where your time, energy, and budget will actually have an impact. We also tackle one of the biggest author-marketing myths: that more is always better. More posting. More platforms. More tactics. More noise. It isn’t. The goal isn’t to do everything. It’s to know which things matter for your book, your readers, and where you are in your publishing journey. We’ll also talk about why long-tail marketing deserves a permanent spot on the “in” list, why reader retention may matter more than chasing a one-week bestseller spike, and why simple, authentic author video can often do more for reader connection than an expensive book trailer. Consider this your permission slip to keep what works, ditch what doesn’t, and stop feeling guilty about all the marketing tactics you were never going to enjoy doing anyway. If the episode helps, subscribe, share it with an author friend, and leave us a review so more writers can find practical book marketing advice that actually fits the way readers discover and buy books today. Send us your feedback! Order Penny's latest book, Think Local Sell Global and start building a book sales strategy you have more control over! 📱 Text Penny & Amy: Send your marketing questions, show feedback, and episode ideas. Text PODCAST to (888) 402-8940 to join and get new episode alerts. Save our number! ⭐ Enjoying the show? Please follow the podcast and leave us a review on Apple Podcasts or Spotify. Your reviews help more authors discover the show! 💬 Don't use Apple Podcasts or Spotify? Email your review to [email protected] and we'll feature it on our website.

If you’ve ever put off your book marketing, disappeared down another research rabbit hole, or told yourself you’ll get serious about promotion after the next book is finished, this episode is for you. And no, we’re not here to call authors lazy. Because what looks like laziness is often something else entirely: overwhelm, uncertainty, perfectionism, fear of making the wrong decision, or simply not knowing what to tackle first. Book marketing has a lot of moving parts, and when everything feels important, it’s surprisingly easy to do nothing—or keep doing the comfortable things while avoiding the decisions that would actually move the needle. We start with one of the biggest examples: authors who describe their target audience as “women,” “people who like to read,” or, our personal favorite, “everyone.” It may feel safer to cast a wide net, but vague reader targeting creates problems everywhere else. Your audience influences your Amazon categories, keywords, book description, positioning, retail presentation, publicity opportunities, and ultimately whether the right reader recognizes that your book is meant for them. Specificity doesn’t shrink your market. It gives your marketing somewhere to go. We also dig into the behaviors that keep authors caught in what we call the marketing spin cycle: endless preparation, waiting to feel motivated, putting off uncomfortable tasks, worrying so much about wasting money that you wind up doing nothing at all, and convincing yourself that one more book—or one magical marketing tactic—is going to solve the problem. And sometimes the smartest investment isn’t paying someone to do more tasks. It’s paying for perspective, clarity, and expertise that helps you make better decisions in the first place. We’ll also share a lesson from our own recent pre-order campaign about why genuinely useful reader value can outperform another piece of swag—and why paying attention to what your audience actually wants matters far more than simply doing what everyone else is doing. If your book marketing has stalled, this episode isn’t about making you feel guilty. It’s about figuring out what’s underneath the avoidance, simplifying the decisions in front of you, and getting back to the kind of consistent, intentional action that actually builds visibility, reviews, and book sales. Subscribe so you don’t miss future book marketing tips, share this episode with an author who may be feeling stuck, and leave us a review wherever you listen so more authors can find the show. Send us your feedback! Order Penny's latest book, Think Local Sell Global and start building a book sales strategy you have more control over! 📱 Text Penny & Amy: Send your marketing questions, show feedback, and episode ideas. Text PODCAST to (888) 402-8940 to join and get new episode alerts. Save our number! ⭐ Enjoying the show? Please follow the podcast and leave us a review on Apple Podcasts or Spotify. Your reviews help more authors discover the show! 💬 Don't use Apple Podcasts or Spotify? Email your review to [email protected] and we'll feature it on our website.

Top authors are not successful simply because they write good books or have bigger marketing budgets. The strongest authors understand something many writers overlook: readers are constantly deciding whether a book feels worth their time, attention, and money—and those decisions often happen before the first page is ever read. In this episode, we unpack what top-performing authors understand about reader choice and how newer, midlist, and independent authors can apply those same lessons without trying to imitate a celebrity bestseller’s career. From Amazon and Goodreads to BookTok, newsletters, podcasts, social media, subscription platforms, and AI-powered recommendations, readers now discover books through more channels than ever. But the core question remains the same: when a reader sees your book alongside dozens of others, what makes them choose yours? We break down the practical signals successful authors use to build reader confidence. That includes clear genre positioning, covers that immediately communicate the right reading experience, compelling retail descriptions, consistent series branding, strong author presentation, and messaging that makes it easy for readers to understand exactly what they are getting. The most successful books are rarely confusing. They are clear about their audience, their promise, and the emotional or entertainment experience waiting inside. We also talk about the smartest way to study successful authors. Instead of comparing yourself only to household names with decades of visibility, legacy media coverage, and enormous reader bases, look for your true market neighbors: rising authors, successful midlist writers, and indie authors who are steadily gaining traction with readers now. Their categories, cover choices, series pages, pricing, descriptions, reviews, and reader conversations can reveal valuable clues about what is working in your genre today. You’ll learn why readers often need familiarity before they are willing to take a chance on originality, why clarity consistently outperforms cleverness on a retail page, and how professional, cohesive branding reduces the perceived risk of trying a new author. Readers are not only choosing where to spend their money. They are choosing where to spend their time. The takeaway is not that you need to become a copy of a top author. It is that you need to understand the reader-confidence strategies top authors use so you can make better decisions about how your own book is positioned, presented, and marketed. Send us your feedback! Order Penny's latest book, Think Local Sell Global and start building a book sales strategy you have more control over! 📱 Text Penny & Amy: Send your marketing questions, show feedback, and episode ideas. Text PODCAST to (888) 402-8940 to join and get new episode alerts. Save our number! ⭐ Enjoying the show? Please follow the podcast and leave us a review on Apple Podcasts or Spotify. Your reviews help more authors discover the show! 💬 Don't use Apple Podcasts or Spotify? Email your review to [email protected] and we'll feature it on our website.

Amazon is changing how readers discover books, and authors who understand the shift now will be in a much stronger position than those who wait for the results to become obvious. Search is becoming more conversational, recommendations are becoming more context-driven, and AI is increasingly influencing how books are matched with reader interests, moods, questions, needs, and expectations. In this episode, we break down what those broader AI changes mean for your Amazon presence and why the old approach to retail copy is no longer enough. A book description cannot simply sound polished. Your subtitle cannot rely on vague promises. Your categories, keywords, author bio, and book-page messaging all need to work together to clearly communicate what your book is, who it is for, and why the right reader should choose it. We talk through the biggest mistakes authors still make on Amazon, including generic descriptions, keyword stuffing, unclear genre signals, overly salesy subtitles, and back-cover copy that never tells readers what kind of experience they are actually buying. You will hear practical ways to strengthen your book’s positioning, clarify its themes and reader promise, and make your retail page more useful for both human readers and AI-driven discovery tools. We also look at the overlooked areas that can either support or weaken visibility, including your Author Central bio, the per-title “About the Author” section, and the language you use to describe your audience. As Amazon search becomes more intelligent, the authors who win will be the ones who make it easy for the platform to understand their books—and easy for readers to recognize that they have found exactly what they were looking for. Subscribe, share this episode with an author friend, and leave a review to help more writers find the show. Send us your feedback! Order Penny's latest book, Think Local Sell Global and start building a book sales strategy you have more control over! 📱 Text Penny & Amy: Send your marketing questions, show feedback, and episode ideas. Text PODCAST to (888) 402-8940 to join and get new episode alerts. Save our number! ⭐ Enjoying the show? Please follow the podcast and leave us a review on Apple Podcasts or Spotify. Your reviews help more authors discover the show! 💬 Don't use Apple Podcasts or Spotify? Email your review to [email protected] and we'll feature it on our website.

Selling direct to readers can sound like the ultimate author-business upgrade: higher royalties, faster payouts, more control, and a customer list you actually own. But is it the right move for your book right now? In this episode, we unpack the real tradeoffs behind selling books from your own website—and why launching a direct-sales store before you have the audience, systems, or offers to support it can become an expensive distraction. Amazon may take a bigger cut, but it also delivers something many authors underestimate: reader trust, familiar checkout, Prime shipping expectations, and an enormous built-in shopping habit. We break down what direct sales actually require behind the scenes, from inventory, shipping, sales tax, customer service, refunds, and fulfillment to the not-so-small challenge of convincing a reader to pay shipping when Amazon has trained them to expect it fast and free. Then we get into the more important question: when does selling direct make sense? You’ll hear what successful direct-selling authors tend to have in place first, why your email list is the real engine behind direct revenue, and which offers give readers a reason to buy from you instead of defaulting to Amazon—think signed books, exclusive editions, bundles, bonuses, and companion products. We also answer a listener question about beta reader feedback: what you can ethically use, what should stay private, and how to turn powerful reader comments into marketing assets across your Amazon page, website, email newsletter, and social media. Before you build a store, make sure you understand what will actually move the needle. Listen now, subscribe for more practical book marketing guidance, and share this episode with an author who is wondering whether direct sales are worth the effort. Send us your feedback! Order Penny's latest book, Think Local Sell Global and start building a book sales strategy you have more control over! 📱 Text Penny & Amy: Send your marketing questions, show feedback, and episode ideas. Text PODCAST to (888) 402-8940 to join and get new episode alerts. Save our number! ⭐ Enjoying the show? Please follow the podcast and leave us a review on Apple Podcasts or Spotify. Your reviews help more authors discover the show! 💬 Don't use Apple Podcasts or Spotify? Email your review to [email protected] and we'll feature it on our website.

Could your author newsletter become a new income stream—or will charging readers create more work than revenue? Paid newsletters are everywhere right now, especially with platforms like Substack making it look easy to turn emails into monthly income. But for authors, the question is not whether someone is making money with a paid newsletter. It is whether your readers have a compelling reason to pay for yours. In this episode, we break down what actually works: the types of exclusive content readers may value, why a strong mission or niche can matter more than a large subscriber count, and how expert curation, analysis, behind-the-scenes access, or special offers can help a paid tier feel worthwhile. We also get honest about the parts no one likes to talk about: the ongoing content demands, the pressure to keep subscribers engaged every single month, and the conversion math that can quickly change the revenue picture. With free-to-paid conversion rates often landing around 3%, authors need to understand what it really takes to make this model profitable before building an entirely new content machine. You’ll also hear why your free newsletter should remain the foundation of your reader relationship, even if you decide to test a paid option—and what to consider before moving your audience to Substack or another platform that could pull attention away from your website, SEO, and broader author brand. Plus, we answer a listener question about book relaunches: when a relaunch makes sense, what separates it from simply “always promoting,” and how to use new momentum—like an award win, fresh positioning, or an updated edition—to give a book another real shot at visibility. Before you put your newsletter behind a paywall, listen to this episode. It could save you time, help you protect your reader relationship, and give you a clearer path to building income that actually supports your author career. Send us your feedback! Order Penny's latest book, Think Local Sell Global and start building a book sales strategy you have more control over! 📱 Text Penny & Amy: Send your marketing questions, show feedback, and episode ideas. Text PODCAST to (888) 402-8940 to join and get new episode alerts. Save our number! ⭐ Enjoying the show? Please follow the podcast and leave us a review on Apple Podcasts or Spotify. Your reviews help more authors discover the show! 💬 Don't use Apple Podcasts or Spotify? Email your review to [email protected] and we'll feature it on our website.

You do not need a free afternoon—or an exhausting new marketing plan—to make meaningful progress with your book. In this episode, Penny Sansevieri and Amy Cornell break down how authors can use just 15 focused minutes to improve the parts of their marketing that keep working long after the timer stops. They start by celebrating Penny’s new release, Think Local, Sell Global, then get straight to one of the biggest traps authors fall into: confusing constant activity with actual momentum. Posting randomly, scrolling for ideas, or trying to “do all the things” may feel productive, but it rarely builds the visibility, trust, and reader connection that lead to book sales. Instead, Penny and Amy share a smarter question to ask before you spend your time: What can I improve today that will still be helping my book next week, next month, and three months from now? You will hear practical, high-impact ways to strengthen your book’s discoverability and conversion in short, manageable bursts. From tightening the opening lines of your Amazon description and reviewing your categories and keywords to refreshing your author bio, improving your website, adding A+ Content, and checking what readers see inside your Look Inside preview, these are the book marketing assets that can quietly do more of the selling for you. They also talk about the long-game power of email marketing, how to reconnect with a quiet newsletter list, and what to say when you are convinced you have “nothing to send.” Plus, they share realistic 15-minute, 30-minute, and 60-minute marketing plans to help you stay visible between launches without burning yourself out. If your book marketing has felt scattered, time-consuming, or impossible to keep up with, this episode will help you refocus on the small improvements that create a much bigger payoff. Send us your feedback! Order Penny's latest book, Think Local Sell Global and start building a book sales strategy you have more control over! 📱 Text Penny & Amy: Send your marketing questions, show feedback, and episode ideas. Text PODCAST to (888) 402-8940 to join and get new episode alerts. Save our number! ⭐ Enjoying the show? Please follow the podcast and leave us a review on Apple Podcasts or Spotify. Your reviews help more authors discover the show! 💬 Don't use Apple Podcasts or Spotify? Email your review to [email protected] and we'll feature it on our website.

As Penny's new book, Think Local, Sell Global, heads into pre-order, this replay felt especially timely. One of the biggest mistakes authors make is assuming that local book marketing is somehow “small.” In reality, the relationships you build in your own community can become the foundation for stronger visibility, more reader connection, better word-of-mouth, and opportunities that continue expanding well beyond your ZIP code. In this replay episode, Amy and Penny dig into one of the most underused local marketing opportunities available to authors: libraries. We talk about how to get your book in front of the right library contacts, what librarians may consider before adding a title to their shelves, and why simply walking in and asking them to stock your book is rarely the smartest approach. You’ll hear practical ways to become part of your local library community first—from getting a card and attending events to supporting their programs, following them online, and identifying where your book, expertise, or perspective could genuinely add value. We also cover how to pitch library events, collaborate with other local authors, work with Friends of the Library groups, and avoid creating an event that requires more staff time than a library can realistically provide. Libraries are not just places where books live. They are community hubs filled with readers, families, educators, local organizations, and people actively looking for meaningful resources and experiences. That makes them an ideal place to begin building the kind of hometown visibility that can support your book far beyond launch week. This may be a replay, but the strategy is more relevant than ever—especially for authors who want to stop waiting for visibility to happen and start creating it closer to home. Send us your feedback! Order Penny's latest book, Think Local Sell Global and start building a book sales strategy you have more control over! 📱 Text Penny & Amy: Send your marketing questions, show feedback, and episode ideas. Text PODCAST to (888) 402-8940 to join and get new episode alerts. Save our number! ⭐ Enjoying the show? Please follow the podcast and leave us a review on Apple Podcasts or Spotify. Your reviews help more authors discover the show! 💬 Don't use Apple Podcasts or Spotify? Email your review to [email protected] and we'll feature it on our website.