Novel Marketing

Russell Nohelty, a USA Today bestselling author of more than 70 books, shares five Kickstarter campaign types for authors. They explore testing demand before writing, reviving backlist titles, creating premium editions, and expanding book brands into games, planners, comics, and audio. They also tackle memorable campaign storytelling, profitability, and why T-shirts can be a costly reward.

Matthew Bowman, a freelance science fiction and fantasy editor with 16 years of experience, reveals why AI showers manuscripts with misleading praise. He explores prompts that trigger tougher criticism, audience-specific reviews, fact-checking, fresh chats, competing AI models, and simulated one-star reviews. They also discuss reusable AI workflows, project knowledge, and why human judgment must remain in charge.

Julie Broad, founder of Book Launchers and a nonfiction publishing expert, joins the conversation on bringing an underperforming book back to life. They explore when a relaunch beats writing a new book, how sales, reviews, ads, and covers reveal what went wrong, and the differences between a refresh and a second edition. Plus, Amazon rules for transferring reviews and avoiding duplicate listings.

Joanna Penn, bestselling author, podcaster, and creative entrepreneur, explores short stories as a playground for writers. She discusses testing genres and story worlds, gathering story seeds, shaping stories around one character and obstacle, and crafting powerful endings. They also cover studying great fiction, handwriting stories to analyze craft, and using short fiction to practice publishing.

Kris Austin, co-founder and CEO of Draft2Digital, breaks down the real trade-offs between Kindle Unlimited and going wide. They explore retailer, library, print, and audiobook distribution, genre-specific strategies, unified reporting, ISBNs, large print, and a new opportunity for KU authors. The conversation also tackles long-term economics and choosing a flexible publishing path.

What if a bot could handle your author admin? This practical walkthrough shows how to build a GrokBot webmaster assistant, connect it safely to WordPress, preview changes, and automate website updates. It also explores bot teams, review collection, newsletter drafting, publishing workflows, and the promise of conversational AI for freeing writers from repetitive technical tasks.

It's 1:30 in the morning, and a woman in Cleveland has just finished your book. She meant to go to bed hours ago, but she just couldn't put it down, and now she's at the end, feeling that particular ache that comes from finishing a book you loved. She turns the page to see what you have for her next.What does she find?Your book’s last pages might be quietly costing you thousands in sales, subscribers, or readers. They might even be getting your ebook banned on Amazon. But they should be thrilling your readers and propelling your sales.In this week’s episode, you’ll hear Laurie Christine talk about making the most of those pages at the very end of your book.You’ll learnThe one call-to-action you should choose for your first book, which seems to contradict the Novel Marketing methodWhat kinds of links are prohibited in Kindle books (and what to use instead)The easiest way to thrill your readers while increasing your page reads and profitability by 10%Listen in or read the blog version to make sure your back matter is working for you instead of putting your book at risk.Blog link: https://www.authormedia.com/will-your-back-matter-get-your-book-banned-on-amazon/AuthorMedia.social link: YT Link: https://youtu.be/EIANWV02sTMSupport the show

Jason Barnard, digital marketing specialist and founder of CaliCube, explains how search engines and AI identify authors online. They explore building a clear About page, creating dedicated book pages, choosing a consistent domain, preventing name confusion, and maintaining accurate profiles across the web. They also discuss Grokipedia, press kits, interviews, links, and practical website structure.

Damon J. Courtney, founder and CEO of BookFunnel and fantasy novelist, builds tools to help authors deliver and sell ebooks and audiobooks directly to readers. He explains reader magnets, group promos to grow lists fast, piracy protection and instant delivery, tips for selling direct and in-person, and how integrations and support make digital distribution smooth.

Every month, traditional publishers lose more ground to indie authors.One reason it’s happening is that in trad publishing, a committee or the highest-paid person in the room makes the call on book covers, marketing copy, and even what they suppose readers might like. Both get it wrong far more often than they want to admit.Most indie authors aren't much better off. They just swap the highest-paid person’s opinion for their own, and trust their own gut on covers, titles, and blurbs.But savvy authors skip this guessing game entirely. They test everything, and they're outselling everyone else.In this week’s episode, USA Today best-selling author Steve Piper sits down with Thomas to break down exactly how split testing works.You’ll discover:How many ideas you should test to find a viable oneWhat kinds of book-related assets work for split testingThe sneaky metric that fools most authors into thinking their split-tested ads are workingIf you need help choosing a title, cover, or copy, or if you’re wondering why your ads aren’t working, listen in or read the blog version to find out how you can know for sure what will work.Blog link: https://www.authormedia.com/why-your-cover-blurb-and-hook-are-all-just-guesses/AuthorMedia.social link: https://authormedia.social/c/novel-marketing/why-your-cover-blurb-and-hook-are-all-just-guessesSupport the show