Behind the Book Cover

Holly Darling is the owner of Holly Darling HQ, a business that focuses on helping authors create and implement their email marketing strategies to sell more books and build their brand loyalty.  In other words, she was the perfect person for me to interview about why you need to start your author newsletter list now—and the most effective ways to do that. In this episode, we talked about so many things, including but not limited to: which newsletter provider is the best one to start with (hint: it's not Mailchimp), average open rates (and why open rates have been inflated lately), why to be vulnerable in your emails, how and why to split test, whether or not you should re-send emails to subscribers who don't open, where you should put your newsletter sign up in your book and finally why it's great to not have many subscribers. In other words, actionable AF. So dig in. And take action! IF YOU'RE A NON-FICTION AUTHOR, YOU NEED AN ELEVATOR PITCH! GET YOUR ELEVATOR PITCH TEMPLATE AT WWW.BOOKELEVATORPITCH.COM

Craig Tuch is doing God's work. At least when it comes to the author who really wants Amazon reviews. See, Tuch started a company called Hidden Gems that, among other author services, provides a way for authors to gather reader reviews for their books. As anyone who has managed an Advanced Reader Team can attest, getting people to follow through on actually writing the reviews they've promised is no simple feat. Hidden Gems to the rescue—with very reasonable prices to boot! In this interview, Tuch broke down how he gathered a list of 15,000 avid readers who love to review, why it's good to have bad reviews and how sticky the Amazon review process can be. IF YOU'RE A NON-FICTION AUTHOR, YOU NEED AN ELEVATOR PITCH! GET YOUR ELEVATOR PITCH TEMPLATE AT WWW.BOOKELEVATORPITCH.COM

Rich Goldstein is a patent attorney, speaker, host of the Innovations and Breakthroughs podcast and, most relevantly for this show, the author of the bestselling book The ABA Consumer Guide to Obtaining a Patent, which was published by the American Bar Association. He's someone who understands through and through what a book can do for someone's business and in this episode, we got into all that as well as how writing a book changed Rich's career, why he sends a copy of the book to anyone who requests it and how writing a book could, theoretically, make an entrepreneur a cool five million. IF YOU'RE AN AUTHOR, YOU NEED AN ELEVATOR PITCH! GET YOUR ELEVATOR PITCH TEMPLATE AT WWW.BOOKELEVATORPITCH.COM

This solo episode is material from the book I'm currently writing (working title The Entrepreneur’s Guide to Preparing, Promoting and Profiting from Your How-to Book). I'm sharing it with you for several reasons: 1) If you're writing a how-to book, you need it. It is all about the WHY, WHAT and WHO of conceptualizing a how-to book. 2) I am practicing what I preach in this book, which is SHARE WHAT YOU'RE WORKING on with your audience so the people you're writing it for can give you feedback. On that note, do you want ALL the advance intel about this book? In other words, do you want to be the first to hear about the latest tips and techniques when it comes to preparing for, promoting and profiting from your non-fiction book? Do you want to potentially be included in the book? PLEASE SIGN UP HERE. Excited to share the journey and all the exclusives with you! SIGN UP FOR EXCLUSIVES ABOUT THIS BOOK IN PROGRESS HERE!

Alex Sanfilippo is the host of the top-rated podcast Podcasting Made Simple, the founder of PodPros.com, a software company focused specifically on the podcasting industry and the co-creator of PodMatch, a service that matches podcast guests and hosts together for interviews. That's not all! He also co-founded PodcastSOP, a project management tool that helps podcasters keep up with their episode releases. You get it: the guy is POD OBSESSED. So who better to come on the show to talk about how authors can book podcast tours? Everything he shared was fascinating but what I found especially fascinating is what he had to say about why authors should pass on opportunities to go on certain shows and why appearing on smaller podcasts can be way more beneficial than going on the big ones. Good one! Don't miss it! IF YOU'RE AN AUTHOR, YOU NEED AN ELEVATOR PITCH! GET YOUR ELEVATOR PITCH TEMPLATE AT WWW.BOOKELEVATORPITCH.COM

Today, in this solo episode, I'm answering the five most common questions first-time authors have. They are: Do I need a copyright for my book?How many copies of my book will be printed?If I launched a book, and I didn't sell many copies, should I relaunch it?Should I sell my book only on Amazon? Forgive me, that's four. I honestly thought when I recorded it that it was five. I am truly this bad with numbers. Good thing I can do words, no? IF YOU'RE AN AUTHOR, YOU NEED AN ELEVATOR PITCH! GET YOUR ELEVATOR PITCH TEMPLATE AT WWW.BOOKELEVATORPITCH.COM

This solo episode is focused on 11 reasons every entrepreneur should launch a book. They are: Less money spent on adsLess money and time spent on client acquisitionLess money spent on PRMore effective podcast interviewsLess time spent creating contentLess time spent coming up with keynotes since they can come from the bookLess worrying about the competition, and wondering why someone else got the media hit or speaking gigNumerous opportunities to impress the F out of everyone who hears your best selling authorHave the most impressive business card imaginable on you at all timesJump to the front of the lineBe a hero to your family (cheesy but true!) IF YOU'RE AN AUTHOR, YOU NEED AN ELEVATOR PITCH! GET YOUR ELEVATOR PITCH TEMPLATE AT WWW.BOOKELEVATORPITCH.COM

This solo episode is focused on the seven biggest mistakes first-time authors make. They are: Skimping on cover designNot optimizing book descriptionsNot have a reason why/CTASlacking on editingNot gathering reader reviewsNot getting that it's not about themListening to people who give bad advice once the book is written Listen to get all the deets! IF YOU'RE AN AUTHOR, YOU NEED AN ELEVATOR PITCH! GET YOUR ELEVATOR PITCH TEMPLATE AT WWW.BOOKELEVATORPITCH.COM

Scott Duffy is an entrepreneur and business strategist. He is listed as a “Top 10 Speaker” by Entrepreneur and has been named one of the “Top Influential People To Follow” by Yahoo! Finance. He's also the author of three different business books on three different topics, from three different publishers and launched in three entirely different ways. When I was at his mastermind a few weeks ago, he articulated why entrepreneurs should launch books in a way that was clearer than I'd ever heard. That's why I wanted him on the show but what I actually got out of our talk was so much more. In this episode, we got into the importance of subtitles, why authors should be featured on their book covers and how his most recent book launch was a disaster. IF YOU'RE AN AUTHOR, YOU NEED AN ELEVATOR PITCH! GET YOUR ELEVATOR PITCH TEMPLATE AT WWW.BOOKELEVATORPITCH.COM

Jerry Stahl is the iconic author of Permanent Midnight (made into a movie starring Ben Stiller), among nine other books (among them, OG Dad, Pain Killers, I, Fatty, Perv, Plainclothes Naked, Happy Mutant Baby Pills, Bad Sex on Speed and his latest, Nien Nien: One Man's Tale of Depression, Psychic Torment, and a Bus Tour of the Holocaust). A Pushcart Prize–winning author, Stahl’s work has appeared in Esquire, Vice, The Believer, Tin House, Los Angeles Review of Books and the New York Times, among other places. He also wrote the HBO movie Hemingway & Gellhorn (which earned a Writers Guild Award nomination), Bad Boys II and the cult classic Dr. Caligari and has written on the TV shows Maron, CSI and Escape at Dannemora (for which he received an Emmy nomination). So you get it; he's done a lot. So why does he hate promoting his work so much? And how does he promote his work in spite of that? Find out in our spirited, sarcastic and deeply salacious (no, it's not salacious, I was just in the mood to be alliterative) interview. IF YOU'RE AN AUTHOR, YOU NEED AN ELEVATOR PITCH! GET YOUR ELEVATOR PITCH TEMPLATE AT WWW.BOOKELEVATORPITCH.COM