Stark Reflections on Writing and Publishing

EP 254 - Best Pages, Ads, and Newsletters with Bryan Cohen

Jun 16, 2022

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Mark interviews Bryan Cohen who runs Author Ad School, Best Page Forward, and co-hosts The Sell More Books Show.

Prior to the interview, Mark thanks his patrons, reads comments, offers a personal update and shares a word about this episode's sponsor.

You can learn more about how you can get your work distributed to retailers and library systems around the world at starkreflections.ca/Findaway.

During their chat, Mark and Bryan talk about:

Bryan's "Best Page Forward" book blurb writing business that started in 2016
Slowly growing the business by starting off with "bargain basement" pricing, and then eventually growing to having 8 writers and having written more than 5000 book descriptions
The misconception that it's necessary for a blurb writer to have to read the book they are writing about
Adding instructions for Amazon and Facebook ads to his repertoire
The fact that even people who work on the Amazon Ads product can find it complex and confusing
The quarterly free Amazon Ad Challenges that Bryan has been running for the past couple of years
The hands-on approach to this challenge that begins right at step-one
Who these free challenges and the full courses are for
Opportunities that exist within email marketing
The forthcoming book that Bryan is working on that follows the "story" of helping a fictional author named Nina
Bryan's long-running podcast The Sell More Books Show
The importance of regularly scheduled down-time for one's mental and physical health
A little bit about Bryan's own personal writing career
Bryan's final "hot potato of wisdom" (a shtick from The Sell More Books Show)
And more...

After the interview Mark reflects on the importance of downtown for an author, as well as Bryan's reminder about starting off focusing on one writing thing and one marketing thing.

Links of Interest:

Bryan Cohen runs Author Ad School, Best Page Forward, and co-hosts The Sell More Books Show. He's helped over 30,000 authors through his free Ad Challenges and has sold 140,000 copies of his own books as well.

The introductory, end, and bumper music for this podcast (“Laser Groove”) was composed and produced by Kevin MacLeod of www.incompetech.com and is Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0