Stark Reflections on Writing and Publishing

EP 402 - The Visible Author Method of Marketing with Laurie Cooper

Feb 21, 2025

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Mark interviews Laurie Cooper, an award-winning speaker, and an author coach and marketing expert, who helps fiction authors go from struggling, feeling invisible and not knowing what to do next, to finding and connecting with their ideal readers.

Prior to the interview, Mark shares a word about this episode's sponsor.

Learn more about Toronto Indie Author Conference 2025 here.

In their conversation, Mark and Laurie talk about:

The round-about way that Laurie got into the role of becoming a marketing coach for authors
Starting off as a virtual assistant, then moving on to more marketing-related and coaching for authors
It being 11 years since Laurie started working with authors
Some of the ways the marketing landscape and promotion strategies have changed over the years
Laurie's "The Visible Author Method" that authors can enroll in, but only after a discovery call with Laurie and an invitation
The idea that coaches need coaches and therapists need therapists
The most important aspect of what writers want, which is ways to connect with their readers, and having their books read
How "Niching Down and Branding" is at the core of everything Laurie offers to authors
How positioning, or establishing a positioning statement is one of the most taxing endeavors for an author
The way that working with a coach can help an author with being able to see themselves and their writing in a new light/different way is important
The tiny roadblocks that can stop us from moving forward, and the importance of getting over them
The concept of personalized repeatable systems
Navigating the road map of best practices, and the importance of trial and error and measurable metrics
Some of the differences related to marketing for traditionally published authors versus self-published authors
An example of working with a traditionally published author that took some extra effort but worked nicely in the end
Some resources that Laurie recommends
The three questions that you should always be answering for your readers 1) What can they expect 2) Why should they care? (What makes it special) 3) What they can/should do next
The importance of the idea of "my brand equals my promise to my readers"
And more...

After the interview Mark reflects on how the the same process/procedure might work differently for different authors, as well as the importance of being able to pivot when unexpected elements clash with your plans and goals.

Links of Interest:

Award-winning speaker, Laurie Cooper, launched her online business, Pub-Craft: Marketing for Books and Brands, in October 2013. She helps fiction authors go from struggling, feeling invisible and not knowing what to do next, to finding and connecting with their ideal readers. In her first year of business, Laurie went from 1 to over 200 clients and helped 100+ authors hit the New York Times & USA Today Bestselling Lists. While she works as a marketing coach with authors from around the world, Laurie calls Ottawa, Canada her home. Learn more about Laurie and her course,The Visible Author Method. Connect at www.Pub-Craft.com.

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