Latest / The Daily Writer / Bestselling Author Susan Neal on How to Sell 1,000 Books in 3 Months

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Bestselling Author Susan Neal on How to Sell 1,000 Books in 3 Months · The Daily Writer

• 0:06
  SPEAKER_01: Welcome to the Daily Rider Podcast, where we bring you tips and inspiration each day to help you build habits for writing success.
• 0:14
  SPEAKER_01: For more resources, including your free Daily Rider Starter Kit, visit DailyRiderLife.com.
• 0:22
  SPEAKER_01: One of the most important jobs we have as authors is marketing our books.
• 0:27
  SPEAKER_01: Now, I know most of us would rather hide out in our offices and avoid the challenge of putting ourselves out there, but marketing is a core part of serving your audience well and building your author business.
• 0:37
  SPEAKER_01: My guest today is Susan Neal, and she's going to share a strategy that can help you sell 1,000 books in three months.
• 0:46
  SPEAKER_01: Susan has a master's in health science and an MBA.
• 0:49
  SPEAKER_01: She lives her life with a passion to help others improve their health.
• 0:53
  SPEAKER_01: After suffering a health crisis, she became an author and health coach to provide others with the tools they needed to heal their bodies and reclaim their ideal weight.
• 1:02
  SPEAKER_01: Her award-winning number one Amazon bestseller is Seven Steps to Get Off Sugar and Carbohydrates.
• 1:09
  SPEAKER_01: The third book in her Healthy Living series, titled Healthy Living Journal, won the Golden Scrolls Award, 2019 Best Inspirational Gift Book.
• 1:18
  SPEAKER_01: Her newest release, Solving the Gluten Puzzle, helps many determine if they have a gluten-related disorder and also how to treat it.
• 1:27
  SPEAKER_01: Susan has been featured in many media outlets, including The Bridges TV Show, Christian Broadcasting Network, Charisma Magazine, and numerous podcasts and radio shows.
• 1:37
  SPEAKER_01: You can learn more about Susan and find all her books and links at SusanUNeil.com.
• 1:44
  SPEAKER_01: That's Susan, the letter U, thenil n-e-a-l.com.
• 1:48
  SPEAKER_01: So in today's interview, Susan shares specific strategies that she has used to sell books.
• 1:54
  SPEAKER_01: Most importantly, she talks about the importance of having a marketing plan in place.
• 1:58
  SPEAKER_01: You'll want to take notes on this because Susan will give you tons of clear, actionable advice for marketing and selling your books.
• 2:05
  SPEAKER_01: So here's my interview with the amazing Susan Neal.
• 2:09
  SPEAKER_01: Susan, it's great to have you on the Daily Writer Podcast.
• 2:12
  SPEAKER_01: I'm so thrilled that our mutual friend Kelly Brinkman connected us, and we're going to talk about selling books today.
• 2:18
  SPEAKER_01: So before we get into that, though, I just want to say welcome.
• 2:20
  SPEAKER_01: It's really great to have you here.
• 2:22
  SPEAKER_00: Thanks so much, Kent, for having me.
• 2:24
  SPEAKER_00: I'm delighted to be here.
• 2:25
  SPEAKER_01: Absolutely.
• 2:26
  SPEAKER_01: Well, as we were talking about before I hit record, you have done so many interesting things and you have so many potential things that you could talk about.
• 2:33
  SPEAKER_01: It was really hard to narrow this down, honestly.
• 2:35
  SPEAKER_01: We could probably do like a whole series of 10 or 12 episodes and not even scratch the surface of your experience and knowledge.
• 2:42
  SPEAKER_01: But um let's dive into this topic of how to sell a thousand books in three months.
• 2:48
  SPEAKER_01: But actually before I do that, can you talk a little bit about how you got into writing and publishing to begin with?
• 2:54
  SPEAKER_01: Because I'm always interested in hearing people's stories about how they got interested in books and how they got into this world in the first place.
• 3:02
  SPEAKER_00: Sure.
• 3:03
  SPEAKER_00: So um about a decade ago, I went to um the Florida Christian Writers Conference.
• 3:09
  SPEAKER_00: I was pitching, you know, book ideas, and it just made me realize how far away I was from being a real author by learning more about um the publishing career.
• 3:23
  SPEAKER_00: And so uh I went back and uh went back again year after year.
• 3:28
  SPEAKER_00: And after a couple, three years of this, I decided to self-publish my own book.
• 3:33
  SPEAKER_00: And so uh I did.
• 3:36
  SPEAKER_00: And uh by my third self-published book, it really hit the charts and it became a number one Amazon bestseller.
• 3:45
  SPEAKER_00: It's called Seven Steps to Get Off Sugar and Carbohydrates.
• 3:48
  SPEAKER_00: And so that book really uh launched my career, and I just learned more and more about how as an author to market your book and what you need to do.
• 4:02
  SPEAKER_00: So so far I've self-published seven books, and I have one that is traditionally published.
• 4:09
  SPEAKER_01: Do you have any thoughts on, and I know this is going a little bit of a different direction, but since you brought this up, I know people are really interested in should they self-publish or should they seek a traditional publishing deal?
• 4:20
  SPEAKER_01: Do you have any thoughts on that, particularly for first-time authors and what direction maybe they should go?
• 4:24
  SPEAKER_01: Because I know a lot of people stress that about this, and and the the inability to make a decision about that really causes a lot of people to just kind of get paralyzed and not move forward.
• 4:34
  SPEAKER_01: So, any thoughts you have on on that topic?
• 4:37
  SPEAKER_00: Yes, yes, I've written an article on that.
• 4:40
  SPEAKER_00: So if you are a go-getter and you want to have control over everything and you want to make sure it's all done just to your standards, then self-publish.
• 4:52
  SPEAKER_00: If you don't want to get technical and you know, you just want to hand that off to somebody else, then uh go ahead and try and traditionally publish.
• 5:04
  SPEAKER_00: For me, after about three or four years, I didn't get any contracts.
• 5:09
  SPEAKER_00: So I was like, well, I'm gonna do it myself.
• 5:12
  SPEAKER_00: And if I can do it, anybody can do it.
• 5:15
  SPEAKER_00: So uh that that's my short answer for that.
• 5:20
  SPEAKER_00: I did write a whole article on that um on the Right Conversation blog.
• 5:26
  SPEAKER_00: If you go to the Right Conversation blog and you type in my name up on the top left, you can see all my articles, and one of them is specific on that and goes into specific details as to the expense, etc.
• 5:39
  SPEAKER_00: Also, it does cost uh for you to um self-publish, probably, you know, a couple of thousand dollars on the low end, potentially.
• 5:50
  SPEAKER_01: Of course, you can spend a vast amount on self-publishing, but yeah, it's it for the cover and and formatting and editing.
• 5:58
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, and editing is is the biggest part of it for sure.
• 6:02
  SPEAKER_00: Yes.
• 6:03
  SPEAKER_01: So yeah, that that is a sticking point, I know, for a lot of people.
• 6:06
  SPEAKER_01: And I don't know how you approach this when people ask you how do they afford that.
• 6:11
  SPEAKER_01: And sometimes I just say, Well, what can you sell?
• 6:14
  SPEAKER_01: You know, can you do some freelance work?
• 6:16
  SPEAKER_01: What can you do to raise a couple thousand dollars?
• 6:18
  SPEAKER_01: And if you really are entrepreneurial about it and if you are motivated, you can make a thousand or two thousand dollars if you really, really want to do it.
• 6:27
  SPEAKER_01: But it's it's not easy, but it's doable.
• 6:31
  SPEAKER_00: Yes, you can.
• 6:32
  SPEAKER_00: Yes, you can.
• 6:33
  SPEAKER_01: And it's totally worth it because my goodness, you don't want to put a book out there that's not been edited or has a you know, a cover that uh is not good or the formatting's wonky or something like that.
• 6:44
  SPEAKER_01: So yeah, quality is such an important element of this.
• 6:47
  SPEAKER_00: Especially if it's a Christian book and we're representing the Lord.
• 6:51
  SPEAKER_01: Absolutely.
• 6:52
  SPEAKER_01: You know, it's kind of like when you think about medieval times when the best art was made by people of faith.
• 6:57
  SPEAKER_01: I kind of wish that we could return to that idea today because it's such a critical thing.
• 7:03
  SPEAKER_00: Yes, yes, it is.
• 7:05
  SPEAKER_01: So let's dive into this topic how to sell 1,000 books in three months, which sounds like it's a huge, huge deal, and it is a huge deal, but you have a system and you have a lot of pieces that have allowed you to do this.
• 7:18
  SPEAKER_01: So um, let's dive into this.
• 7:20
  SPEAKER_01: First of all, can you give us the backstory of what this book was and and uh kind of the behind the scenes of what it took to do this?
• 7:28
  SPEAKER_01: And then we'll dive into some specific topics related to this, if that works.
• 7:32
  SPEAKER_00: Sure, sure.
• 7:33
  SPEAKER_00: So with my third book, I was finally getting getting the hang of things, kind of like parenting.
• 7:38
  SPEAKER_00: After your third kid, it's like, okay, I'm a much better parent than I was with the first one.
• 7:44
  SPEAKER_00: So, so with the third one, um, I published it, and then uh, you know, I'm trying to get the the snowball effect going, and it it's it's a snowball effect.
• 7:54
  SPEAKER_00: It's slow and it's gradual, kind of like coming down to make the snowball bigger and bigger.
• 8:00
  SPEAKER_00: But what my idea was is okay, for the first year, I'm going to um publish one magazine article, uh one blog, guest blog post, and also be on one podcast or radio show per month.
• 8:16
  unknown: Okay.
• 8:16
  SPEAKER_00: That is that's a really great attainable goal for most of us to do.
• 8:22
  SPEAKER_00: So I did that, and I did that for about the first um five to six months, and then I went to a really big um conference, and my book won first place at this conference with 500 people.
• 8:36
  SPEAKER_01: Oh my gosh.
• 8:37
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, it was yeah, it was the Blue Ridge Mountain Christian Writers Conference.
• 8:41
  SPEAKER_00: It won the most prestigious award, the Sela Award, first place in Christian Living.
• 8:46
  SPEAKER_00: I was so green back then, I had no idea the significance of that because Christian Living, you have hundreds of books in that, you know, entries in that category.
• 8:59
  SPEAKER_00: So uh personal growth would have been smarter to put it in because it's a more narrow category.
• 9:05
  SPEAKER_00: But live and learn.
• 9:06
  SPEAKER_00: Right, you do, you live and learn.
• 9:08
  SPEAKER_00: So then after that, it started selling.
• 9:11
  SPEAKER_00: Um, it went from 50 to 50 books a month to like 250 to 400 books a month.
• 9:20
  SPEAKER_00: So that that is how it began.
• 9:24
  SPEAKER_00: And um with with that book, it was a great idea.
• 9:30
  SPEAKER_00: It had worked with my sister.
• 9:32
  SPEAKER_00: I'd helped her to get off sugar and carbs, and I kept the ideal reader in mind as I was writing the book.
• 9:41
  SPEAKER_00: And I put personal, passionate stories of her story and then also of my story, because um a decade ago I lost my health with 10 medical diagnoses and two surgeries, and so I include that in there as well because I'm come from a standpoint of I know what it's like to not feel well and to gain weight.
• 10:06
  SPEAKER_00: And so here, here is an approach from someone who has experienced this.
• 10:13
  SPEAKER_01: So, in other words, is there, and of course, we're talking about specifically nonfiction here.
• 10:19
  SPEAKER_01: There's really value in a nonfiction book of talking about something you've been through personally so the reader understands you've been there, but then also giving them the solution because you've overcome that problem or you've dealt with that problem.
• 10:31
  SPEAKER_01: Is that a fair way to say that?
• 10:33
  SPEAKER_00: Yes, yes.
• 10:34
  SPEAKER_00: And, you know, we can apply this to fiction as well, because we've been through so many different situations.
• 10:41
  SPEAKER_00: And you just put yourself into that heroine's role of what is happening, and you experience those, you know, experience of how you've experienced it in your own life, and then you put it down with your personal passionate story, even though it's fiction.
• 10:59
  SPEAKER_01: Boy, that's really good.
• 11:00
  SPEAKER_01: That's really, really good.
• 11:02
  SPEAKER_01: You know what?
• 11:02
  SPEAKER_01: I've read books before where it feels like the author is sort of talking down to you, like they're the expert who's kind of lecturing you from on high.
• 11:11
  SPEAKER_01: And it's really hard to relate to an author like that emotionally, even if you like the information or they're right about it or whatever.
• 11:18
  SPEAKER_01: It feels so much more personable whenever you're talking to an or whenever you're reading a book by an author and they say, I know what it feels like to be in your shoes.
• 11:27
  SPEAKER_01: I've been there.
• 11:28
  SPEAKER_01: And and they you get a sense that they really understand the struggle you're going through.
• 11:32
  SPEAKER_01: So I love that.
• 11:34
  SPEAKER_01: That's that's really such a great tip.
• 11:37
  SPEAKER_00: Yes.
• 11:37
  SPEAKER_00: And you know, also an editor really helps you with that because I I never want to come across like that, but if I do, my editor puts me in line.
• 11:47
  SPEAKER_00: So she's one of like my ideal readers.
• 11:50
  SPEAKER_00: So uh an excellent developmental editor really helps to make sure that that doesn't happen.
• 12:00
  SPEAKER_01: Oh, that is that's so such an important point.
• 12:03
  SPEAKER_01: I think editors are the unsung heroes of the book world, they really are.
• 12:07
  SPEAKER_01: Yes, I wouldn't get the credit.
• 12:09
  SPEAKER_00: Right.
• 12:10
  SPEAKER_00: I would not be getting all my awards without my excellent editor.
• 12:14
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, I mean, my goodness, they just they save you from so many embarrassing mistakes, first of all.
• 12:21
  SPEAKER_01: They just they they help make a book what they are.
• 12:23
  SPEAKER_01: I almost think we should start putting editors' names on the cover of the book because they have such an outsized influence on the book.
• 12:30
  SPEAKER_01: Yes, that's probably never going to happen.
• 12:32
  SPEAKER_01: But to all the editors out there, we love you.
• 12:34
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, thanks for all you do because you make us look way better than we are half the time, all the time.
• 12:40
  SPEAKER_01: So let me hit a few other things here that are a part of uh a part of your journey of selling a thousand books in three months, and really just a part of any successful nonfiction book in general or fiction book.
• 12:51
  SPEAKER_01: So we talked about editing.
• 12:52
  SPEAKER_01: Can you share a bit about the hook or the reader benefit when we're putting together a book?
• 12:58
  SPEAKER_01: Specifically nonfiction.
• 12:59
  SPEAKER_01: I think most of my listeners probably are working on nonfiction books, but talk a little bit about the importance of that hook and in detailing the reader benefit, particularly at the beginning of a book, if you can.
• 13:11
  SPEAKER_00: Yes.
• 13:12
  SPEAKER_00: So I like to even put the hook in with the title.
• 13:15
  SPEAKER_00: I'm working on a book right now.
• 13:16
  SPEAKER_00: Oh, that's cool.
• 13:17
  SPEAKER_00: Yes.
• 13:18
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, it's called uh 12 Ways to Age Gracefully.
• 13:23
  SPEAKER_00: How to look and feel younger.
• 13:26
  SPEAKER_01: Ooh.
• 13:27
  SPEAKER_00: In the hook.
• 13:28
  SPEAKER_01: Can I buy it right now?
• 13:29
  SPEAKER_01: Yes.
• 13:30
  SPEAKER_00: The hook is you can feel and look younger next month or next year than you do today.
• 13:40
  SPEAKER_01: That's really good.
• 13:41
  SPEAKER_01: That's really good.
• 13:42
  SPEAKER_01: So you can basically bake that hook into the title itself rather than burying it like in chapter one of the introduction.
• 13:50
  SPEAKER_01: You use the title itself as the hook.
• 13:52
  SPEAKER_00: Yes.
• 13:53
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, well, yeah, you incorporate it in there.
• 13:56
  SPEAKER_00: Like here, here's one I have Healthy Living Journal.
• 13:59
  SPEAKER_00: Okay, that's the title.
• 14:00
  SPEAKER_00: But here's like the hook is track your healthy eating and living habits for improved health and well-being.
• 14:07
  SPEAKER_00: So, what are they gonna get out of it?
• 14:09
  SPEAKER_00: Improved health and well-being.
• 14:12
  SPEAKER_01: Now, as far as as far as keywords or SEO or those those kinds of things, does it matter if the the keywords are in the title or subtitle as far as Amazon goes or Google goes?
• 14:23
  SPEAKER_00: Yes, it helps a lot.
• 14:25
  SPEAKER_00: Most definitely helps a lot.
• 14:28
  SPEAKER_01: But I mean it does it matter if it's in the title or the subtitle.
• 14:31
  SPEAKER_01: Does it make any difference whether No, no, it doesn't matter.
• 14:34
  SPEAKER_01: Because it's all the same as far as Amazon goes.
• 14:36
  SPEAKER_00: Right, right.
• 14:36
  SPEAKER_00: Title and subtitle is fine.
• 14:39
  SPEAKER_00: But and uh I use Publisher Rocket to determine my keywords.
• 14:43
  SPEAKER_00: I, you know, I I always get into the scientific, valid.
• 14:48
  SPEAKER_00: I want a keyword that uh people are searching for, you know, thousands of people are searching for per month versus hundreds of people searching for it.
• 14:59
  SPEAKER_01: So we can we dig into that for a minute with Publisher Rocket because it's a tool that, okay, this is I feel like I need a priest on this call because I'm gonna go into confession time.
• 15:09
  SPEAKER_01: So I actually have Publisher Rocket, but I've not used it extensively.
• 15:13
  SPEAKER_01: I think I've pulled it up like three times and used it.
• 15:16
  SPEAKER_01: And I felt kind of confused by it.
• 15:18
  SPEAKER_01: I shouldn't admit that because I'm supposed to be a professional writer.
• 15:21
  SPEAKER_01: But so for those who get Publisher Rocket, well, I guess first of all, what does it do?
• 15:26
  SPEAKER_01: And what are the best ways to use it?
• 15:29
  SPEAKER_00: They uh the owner of it, the developer, he has great tutorials.
• 15:34
  SPEAKER_00: He has like maybe four tutorials and they're like five minutes each.
• 15:39
  SPEAKER_00: Perfect.
• 15:39
  SPEAKER_00: So I found it very easy to use after watching those tutorials.
• 15:45
  SPEAKER_00: Okay, perfect.
• 15:46
  SPEAKER_00: And one is it determines your keywords, so it knows how many people on Google and on the Amazon on Amazon, how many people on Amazon search for your keyword?
• 16:02
  SPEAKER_00: So for improved health, for healthy eating.
• 16:07
  SPEAKER_00: So I look up each of those and for for um healthy living habits, you know, I keep looking and I see, okay, is it 5,000 people searching for them or is it 300 people searching for them?
• 16:19
  SPEAKER_00: And so I I just rank this all on a spreadsheet.
• 16:23
  SPEAKER_00: And after I have just spent an hour or two just figuring out, okay, what um what are the keywords associated with my book that more people search for on Amazon?
• 16:38
  SPEAKER_00: And then how can I incorporate that into my book's title, uh subtitle, or description on the back cover if I'm not done yet, or description if my back cover is already done than my description on Amazon.
• 16:58
  SPEAKER_01: And those are not always the same, correct?
• 17:00
  SPEAKER_01: What's on the back of the book is not always the same as what's in the description on Amazon.
• 17:04
  SPEAKER_00: Correct, because you can a lot of times you would have already had the cover done and you can't change it, but you can change the you can modify your description that you had on the back cover to add your keywords and then put it on Amazon.
• 17:18
  SPEAKER_01: So where do you get those keywords to begin, Martha?
• 17:20
  SPEAKER_01: These ones that you're coming up with yourself, yes, or did Publisher Rocket is does it also suggest possible keywords that could be associated with that?
• 17:29
  SPEAKER_00: Both.
• 17:29
  SPEAKER_00: So you start with what you think of.
• 17:32
  SPEAKER_00: So uh and you just think of you know, you just brainstorm and come up with 10, 12, 15 keywords.
• 17:39
  SPEAKER_00: And then if it's a broad keyword, then it will like if it's um eating, it you'll have you'll have hundreds underneath that of words that Publisher Rocket comes up with.
• 17:53
  SPEAKER_00: If it's healthy eating, you might only have 50 words under it that come up from Publisher Rocket.
• 18:00
  SPEAKER_01: Genius, genius.
• 18:01
  SPEAKER_01: Well, I know what I'm gonna be doing this afternoon when we get off this call.
• 18:05
  SPEAKER_00: Yes, and digging into that.
• 18:07
  SPEAKER_00: The other thing that Publisher Rocket does is it does your categories, it it helps you figure out the best categories for Amazon.
• 18:15
  SPEAKER_00: And so um, I have a course on this to teach authors how to determine this, both your keywords and categories because it's technical, but it is so important when it comes to your books marketing and ranking on Amazon.
• 18:32
  SPEAKER_00: So much is, you know, what 70 plus percent of books are sold on Amazon.
• 18:38
  SPEAKER_00: So it's so important.
• 18:40
  SPEAKER_00: So you want a category, you want some broader categories like historical fiction, but then you would also want a really narrow category.
• 18:51
  SPEAKER_00: For example, with my book, Seven Steps to Get Off Sugar and Carbohydrates, I changed it from diet category on Amazon to healthy diets.
• 19:01
  SPEAKER_00: And when I changed it to healthy diets, which was a more narrow category, it became number one.
• 19:09
  SPEAKER_00: And it stayed there for months because in that category, it required fewer um book sales to get in the top 10.
• 19:21
  SPEAKER_01: Okay.
• 19:21
  SPEAKER_01: Now let me ask you this, and not these are little side trails I hadn't anticipated on going down, but you're so smart with all this stuff that I'm sort of like, well, while Susan's here, I better ask my questions.
• 19:33
  SPEAKER_01: So uh earlier this year I came out with a book that I wrote for my son's called 18 Words to Live By.
• 19:37
  SPEAKER_01: It's a little short book.
• 19:38
  SPEAKER_01: Wrote it for his 18th birthday.
• 19:41
  SPEAKER_01: And that was number one in two categories related to fatherhood for probably about a week.
• 19:46
  SPEAKER_01: I was honestly kind of surprised because I didn't do any PR for it ahead of time.
• 19:51
  SPEAKER_01: It was a surprise for him, so I couldn't really put it out there into the world or do any, you know, stuff before the launch or anything like that.
• 19:59
  SPEAKER_01: So, and I took screenshots, you know, the book is number one in a couple different categories.
• 20:04
  SPEAKER_01: How can people use it if you get to number one in one or more categories, how can you use that to your advantage as an author?
• 20:12
  SPEAKER_00: Well, you can say you're a best-selling author.
• 20:14
  SPEAKER_00: If you're in the top 100 of Amazon, you're a best-selling author because you're on their best-selling lists, they have lists for every categories of the best-selling books, and then you can promote it on social media and show the screenshot, and it shows sh shows more validity.
• 20:31
  SPEAKER_00: But um but what you want to do is when if you did you publish your book yourself?
• 20:37
  SPEAKER_01: Yes.
• 20:38
  SPEAKER_00: Okay, so what you would want to do is like within 24 hours of you publishing it, or for me it was like two years later of publishing it.
• 20:48
  SPEAKER_00: Okay, I went to authorcentral.amazon.com.
• 20:52
  SPEAKER_00: So that's author central, Amazon's author central, and I asked them to expand my categories from three, which you're allowed to do when you self-publish to 10.
• 21:06
  SPEAKER_01: What?
• 21:06
  SPEAKER_01: Really?
• 21:07
  SPEAKER_00: Yes.
• 21:08
  SPEAKER_00: So this was just a few years back that Amazon started allowing us authors to expand our categories from three to 10.
• 21:16
  SPEAKER_00: So now I have 10 different categories to potentially rank um higher on.
• 21:24
  SPEAKER_00: So it's not just three, but you have to do it through um going through author central.
• 21:31
  SPEAKER_00: So I didn't again, I teach this in my course because it can be a little complicated, but you can do it.
• 21:39
  SPEAKER_01: I had no idea that was an option.
• 21:42
  SPEAKER_01: Well, I I've got to go get all your courses now because there's a lot I don't know about this, to be honest with you.
• 21:48
  SPEAKER_01: But I have really struggled with what to do with the fact that okay, my book was number one for about a week on Amazon.
• 21:54
  SPEAKER_01: And there's part of me, because I'm a ghostwriter also, I kind of know how to game the system and I know how.
• 22:00
  SPEAKER_01: The system works.
• 22:00
  SPEAKER_01: And you know, anybody who's in the book world knows that, okay, like the New York Times bestseller list is not really totally legit in terms of it's not really a list of the bestsellers, it's a curated list and all that.
• 22:13
  SPEAKER_01: However, I think to most people it does mean something to have a number one bestseller.
• 22:19
  SPEAKER_01: Um, to the general public, I think that that really means something.
• 22:22
  SPEAKER_01: And it does mean something legitimately.
• 22:25
  SPEAKER_01: So I've struggled with what to do with that, with that designation.
• 22:29
  SPEAKER_01: And um, I mean, I guess I guess I could put a thing on the front of the book, couldn't I?
• 22:33
  SPEAKER_01: You could put like number one bestseller, like uh one of those little star things or something.
• 22:37
  SPEAKER_00: Some people do that and put it in your bio, put it in your author author bio, maybe not on your book, but wherever you're speaking or anywhere else that you put that you are a best-selling author.
• 22:50
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, you're award-winning.
• 22:51
  SPEAKER_00: Another thing is we need to win awards, and then go and put that little gold star on your book after it's won the award because that will automatically start.
• 23:03
  SPEAKER_00: I think that was part of my going from 50 a month to 250 a month for my book sales.
• 23:09
  SPEAKER_00: It's because I put the gold star on there.
• 23:11
  SPEAKER_00: Yes.
• 23:12
  SPEAKER_01: That is absolutely fascinating.
• 23:14
  SPEAKER_01: Gosh, I can't believe I had never thought about that before.
• 23:17
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, so we want to put our books in uh, you know, in different contests to make sure that it wins.
• 23:26
  SPEAKER_00: Wow.
• 23:26
  SPEAKER_00: Then you, yeah.
• 23:27
  SPEAKER_00: So most of my books, they have the the little they have a gold emblem on the cover.
• 23:33
  SPEAKER_01: I feel so foolish that it has never once occurred to me to enter my book into any kind of a contest.
• 23:39
  SPEAKER_01: Not one single time.
• 23:40
  SPEAKER_01: Isn't that crazy?
• 23:42
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, uh, it seems like such an obvious thing to do.
• 23:44
  SPEAKER_01: It just hadn't I'd never thought about it.
• 23:47
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, so that shows validity, you know.
• 23:50
  SPEAKER_00: That shows that that your book is vetted, that other people have read it, that it it won.
• 23:55
  SPEAKER_00: It is a well-written, edited book that you know, you know, the readers would want to tell other people about.
• 24:05
  SPEAKER_01: Gosh, and should I even make this interview public?
• 24:08
  SPEAKER_01: Because I'm like admitting all the all the things that I have not done and things I don't know.
• 24:12
  SPEAKER_01: This is why I have people on the podcast who are a lot smarter than me, you know.
• 24:15
  SPEAKER_01: So I can come and I can learn all these things and and uh people can learn from uh from my awesome guests like yourself.
• 24:23
  SPEAKER_01: So uh so we talked about a number of things here.
• 24:26
  SPEAKER_01: Um, can you share some about book reviews?
• 24:29
  SPEAKER_01: That is an area that I think is mysterious to a lot of people.
• 24:32
  SPEAKER_01: How do you get book reviews?
• 24:34
  SPEAKER_01: Do you just keep bugging people and bugging people till they do them, or do you just leave it a chance, or how do you go about that?
• 24:40
  SPEAKER_01: Any thoughts that you would want to share with us about getting book reviews for a book?
• 24:44
  SPEAKER_00: Yes, uh, you have to keep bugging people until you get 50 reviews.
• 24:51
  SPEAKER_00: Okay.
• 24:51
  SPEAKER_00: So it seems like between 50 and 100 is a magic number for book reviews.
• 24:56
  SPEAKER_00: It took me two years for my best-selling book, took two years for me to get 50 book reviews.
• 25:03
  SPEAKER_00: So anytime, you know, of course, I had my book launch team, and anytime you have a reader who emails you or direct messages you on Facebook or social media and says you, you know, gives you a compliment for your book, you say, Oh, thank you so much.
• 25:22
  SPEAKER_00: And would you please leave a an Amazon book review?
• 25:26
  SPEAKER_00: You know, they already bought it on Amazon, they read it.
• 25:28
  SPEAKER_00: And so, you know, it just doesn't occur to them.
• 25:31
  SPEAKER_00: So I would always do that.
• 25:33
  SPEAKER_00: And yeah, for like three months, once a month, for three months in a row, I would bug all the people on my launch team to please, you know, write a review, and then I would go to different um sites that uh you could put your book on there and pay for that to for other people to potentially um download it then and read it and write reviews.
• 25:58
  SPEAKER_00: Okay.
• 25:58
  SPEAKER_00: So you need to work hard to get 50 reviews, and then it just starts happening magically.
• 26:06
  SPEAKER_00: So it two years for me to get my 50 reviews, and two and a half years after that, I'm over 1,000 reviews on my book.
• 26:16
  unknown: Wow.
• 26:18
  SPEAKER_01: That is absolutely stunning.
• 26:19
  SPEAKER_00: 950 of them were not solicited.
• 26:24
  SPEAKER_01: Wow.
• 26:25
  SPEAKER_01: So would it be fair to say there is a sense in which I don't want to put words into Amazon's mouth, but I guess I kind of am, that Amazon wants to see that your book has some legs before they're going to put the work in in terms of the algorithms and whatever else, to then give your book some more push.
• 26:42
  SPEAKER_01: Would that be fair to say?
• 26:43
  SPEAKER_00: Yes.
• 26:44
  SPEAKER_00: So you really need to get out there and market it.
• 26:46
  SPEAKER_00: That's what we have got to do.
• 26:48
  SPEAKER_00: So that's why I had that plan, you know, to to be on a to write a magazine article, a blog post, and be on a podcast every month.
• 26:57
  SPEAKER_00: I had a plan.
• 26:58
  SPEAKER_00: And so that's what I did.
• 27:01
  SPEAKER_00: So we yes, yes, but it it's something happens after 50 reviews.
• 27:06
  SPEAKER_00: I guess it it deals possibly deals with how Amazon's algorithm because then after that, it starts happening organically.
• 27:15
  SPEAKER_00: The reviews do, and I think Amazon thought that it would happen organically from the beginning, but it doesn't.
• 27:21
  SPEAKER_00: Wow.
• 27:22
  SPEAKER_00: It's like pulling teeth to get the first 50 reviews.
• 27:25
  SPEAKER_01: See, this is really interesting.
• 27:27
  SPEAKER_01: So um earlier, so we're recording this on October third, October 31st.
• 27:33
  SPEAKER_01: So earlier this month, I came out with a book.
• 27:36
  SPEAKER_01: Well, I didn't come out with it.
• 27:37
  SPEAKER_01: Um, I ghost wrote a book, um, really collaborated, I guess, is really the way to say it because my name was on the cover.
• 27:45
  SPEAKER_01: Uh, but called The Faith of Elvis, that I wrote with Elvis Presley's stepbrother, Billy Stanley.
• 27:49
  SPEAKER_01: And I just looked this morning in it, and on Amazon it has 53 reviews.
• 27:55
  SPEAKER_01: So at this point, then things should start to kick in a little bit, correct?
• 27:59
  SPEAKER_01: Yes.
• 28:00
  SPEAKER_01: Because it's over that hump of 50 reviews.
• 28:02
  SPEAKER_00: And you did that in a month?
• 28:05
  SPEAKER_00: That's incredible.
• 28:06
  SPEAKER_00: Congratulations.
• 28:08
  SPEAKER_01: Thank you.
• 28:08
  SPEAKER_01: Well, it was through they'd had a lot of PR for it.
• 28:11
  SPEAKER_01: They hired a big PR firm out of Hollywood to help with it, who's been phenomenal to work with.
• 28:17
  SPEAKER_01: And it was really, really fun because they've included me in all the marketing calls, and I just have enjoyed every second of this process.
• 28:23
  SPEAKER_01: It's been really fun.
• 28:24
  SPEAKER_01: But then I also have asked a lot of people to leave reviews, people who I'm connected with and who I know have bought the book.
• 28:31
  SPEAKER_01: I'm like, please go leave a review, please leave a review.
• 28:33
  SPEAKER_01: Uh, and it does work, you know, if you gently encourage people to do it, generally they will follow through, which is awesome.
• 28:40
  SPEAKER_00: Right.
• 28:41
  SPEAKER_00: That's great.
• 28:41
  SPEAKER_00: Congratulations.
• 28:42
  SPEAKER_00: That's awesome.
• 28:43
  SPEAKER_01: Thank you.
• 28:44
  SPEAKER_01: Thank you.
• 28:45
  SPEAKER_01: Um, let's talk about a couple other things here.
• 28:48
  SPEAKER_01: Um, what about a media kit?
• 28:50
  SPEAKER_01: Now, that is something that I think a lot of authors are intimidated by the idea of putting together a media kit because it's kind of this nebulous thing that's out there.
• 28:59
  SPEAKER_01: What does that mean?
• 28:59
  SPEAKER_01: What does it include?
• 29:00
  SPEAKER_01: Does it mean I've got to take a video of myself?
• 29:03
  SPEAKER_01: What kinds of things would be included in a media kit and why is that important?
• 29:07
  SPEAKER_00: Okay, so if we're talking about a media kit on um a piece of paper, you know, front and back on a piece of paper, you're gonna have your headshot, your bio, your book cover, the description, some questions that media could ask you, maybe an endorsement quote or two.
• 29:26
  SPEAKER_00: So uh that that's all gonna be on there, reader benefit, how it's gonna benefit the reader.
• 29:32
  SPEAKER_00: It's all on there.
• 29:33
  SPEAKER_00: So then if you let's say you go to the National Religious Broadcasters Convention, NRB, which I'm gonna have a booth at in May.
• 29:41
  SPEAKER_00: So uh yeah, for for for my author members.
• 29:45
  SPEAKER_00: But if you go there, then you're giving this to different media, and they can just then, you know, right there look at that sheet and be like, okay, this is great.
• 29:56
  SPEAKER_00: This would go along with my podcast, or this would go along with my television show of who I interview.
• 30:03
  SPEAKER_00: And I will contact her because all the contact information is there and follow up.
• 30:08
  SPEAKER_00: And to tell you the truth, I got four television interviews this year from going to NRB with my media kit.
• 30:18
  SPEAKER_00: And um, if your listeners want to know the 10 essential ingredients on a media kit, they can go to ChristianPublishers.net.
• 30:27
  SPEAKER_00: That's ChristianPublishers.net.
• 30:31
  SPEAKER_00: And at the bottom of the page, they can click on it and get their free um guide to how you create a media kit.
• 30:39
  SPEAKER_00: Perfect.
• 30:40
  SPEAKER_00: And so um one year it was uh was uh during the pandemic 2020.
• 30:45
  SPEAKER_00: I decided, okay, this year what I'm gonna do is I'm going to instead of writing so many blogs and articles, I'm gonna do more podcast interviews and radio shows.
• 30:56
  SPEAKER_00: So then I made a media page on my website.
• 31:02
  SPEAKER_00: So on there I have like interviews, um, you know, to where they can listen to it.
• 31:08
  SPEAKER_00: But then I've also got my bio, my headshot, my book covers, my social media links.
• 31:16
  SPEAKER_00: So for example, yourself, if you needed any of that, I just send you the link and you can go there and right-click and download anything.
• 31:27
  SPEAKER_01: Okay.
• 31:28
  SPEAKER_00: But I started with the paper one.
• 31:30
  SPEAKER_00: And then after I got really serious, I moved to an additional page on my website.
• 31:37
  SPEAKER_01: Okay.
• 31:38
  SPEAKER_01: Perfect.
• 31:38
  SPEAKER_01: Perfect.
• 31:39
  SPEAKER_01: So, really the point here is just get started with something.
• 31:42
  SPEAKER_01: Don't wait until you've got to make it perfect and and you sort of get into the paralysis by analysis mode, which is easy to do.
• 31:53
  SPEAKER_01: True.
• 31:54
  SPEAKER_01: Um, let's talk about uh one other element here uh in terms of selling books and really just in general being a successful author.
• 32:02
  SPEAKER_01: And this is a topic that I know intimidates a lot of authors, uh, and that is social media.
• 32:08
  SPEAKER_01: Um any tips for being effective on social media, especially in terms of using social media to sell books.
• 32:15
  SPEAKER_00: Okay.
• 32:16
  SPEAKER_00: So if you have a link on your social media post that takes the person off of Facebook, Facebook's gonna not gonna hardly show it to anyone.
• 32:30
  SPEAKER_01: Right, right.
• 32:30
  SPEAKER_00: Okay, they don't like you to go off of there.
• 32:33
  SPEAKER_00: Uh what Facebook does like is they like for you to ask uh opinions of people of your readers.
• 32:40
  SPEAKER_00: So what I do is um working on my book or my book cover, I'll put on a post two different covers, or I'll put on a post two different titles and subtitles.
• 32:52
  SPEAKER_00: I need your help.
• 32:53
  SPEAKER_00: Could you please provide your input?
• 32:55
  SPEAKER_00: Would you vote on the one on the left or the one on the right?
• 32:58
  SPEAKER_00: And within one day, I have Facebook show 400 people about my book.
• 33:05
  SPEAKER_00: That's how we get Facebook to work with us without having to buy Facebook ads.
• 33:13
  SPEAKER_01: Oh, that's genius.
• 33:14
  SPEAKER_01: That's genius.
• 33:16
  SPEAKER_01: So a couple of important points here.
• 33:18
  SPEAKER_01: So number one, don't don't put links in your posts that are going to cause somebody to click away from Facebook.
• 33:24
  SPEAKER_01: And number two, ask questions.
• 33:27
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, and people because Facebook wants engagement.
• 33:31
  SPEAKER_00: And then what you want to do with every single one of those comments, you want to comment back.
• 33:36
  SPEAKER_00: And I'll even comment and say, Hey, I'm gonna be going to the Blue Ridge conference next month.
• 33:41
  SPEAKER_00: Are you attending this year?
• 33:43
  SPEAKER_00: So then they they ask me something else.
• 33:45
  SPEAKER_00: Oh, that's say to them, you know, or I'll ask them a question.
• 33:50
  SPEAKER_00: So then they respond back.
• 33:52
  SPEAKER_00: And so then Facebook shows it to another dozen people.
• 33:56
  SPEAKER_00: And then if you want to even get more particular the next day, go back and click like on all the different people who have responded.
• 34:06
  SPEAKER_00: Don't do it at the same time that you're answering or responding to them, do it a day later.
• 34:12
  SPEAKER_00: That again shows more engagement that you are clicking like, you know, 48 hours later.
• 34:19
  SPEAKER_01: Really?
• 34:19
  SPEAKER_01: I've never heard that before.
• 34:21
  SPEAKER_00: I know.
• 34:21
  SPEAKER_00: You see, there's all these techie things that you can learn, right?
• 34:25
  SPEAKER_01: I just I always click like when I, you know, if somebody comments on my post, I click like, then I comment.
• 34:31
  SPEAKER_01: So I should go back a couple days later and hit like.
• 34:34
  SPEAKER_01: What does that actually do?
• 34:35
  SPEAKER_01: Does that sort of almost kick start the algorithm again?
• 34:38
  SPEAKER_00: Yes, yes, yes.
• 34:39
  SPEAKER_00: And I just learned that at a conference this past summer.
• 34:43
  SPEAKER_00: I went to a writer's conference.
• 34:44
  SPEAKER_00: I love to learn, and that is brand new from a social media expert.
• 34:49
  SPEAKER_00: So, yes.
• 34:51
  SPEAKER_01: So I can imagine I always try to put myself in the mind of my listener whenever I do whenever I do interviews.
• 34:58
  SPEAKER_01: So right now I'm thinking of the listener who is they're enjoying what you're saying, they love all these tips, but there's also an emotional side of them that's going, my goodness, this sounds like a lot of work.
• 35:11
  SPEAKER_01: This sounds like it's exhausting, like I'm gonna have to spend all these hours every day doing all this.
• 35:16
  SPEAKER_01: Do you have any words of um comfort or comfort or affirmation for the author who feels overwhelmed by all these things?
• 35:25
  SPEAKER_01: How can people get started with doing these things without feeling totally overwhelmed by all this?
• 35:31
  SPEAKER_00: It is overwhelming.
• 35:33
  SPEAKER_00: So I would ignore the social media for now, except if you have a book coming out and you need people's opinions, that's a great time to do it.
• 35:42
  SPEAKER_00: I I really don't post that much in Facebook, maybe once a month, twice a month.
• 35:47
  SPEAKER_00: I'm not going to spend a load of time there.
• 35:50
  SPEAKER_00: Okay.
• 35:51
  SPEAKER_00: But uh doing a podcast interview like this, I'm reach I'm reaching more people.
• 35:57
  SPEAKER_00: So I really liked the idea of the one blog post, one magazine article, and then one podcast or radio show a month.
• 36:05
  SPEAKER_00: That's a really good goal to go through.
• 36:08
  SPEAKER_00: And if you haven't, um if you haven't yet um figured out your categories and keywords, those are two technical things that you can go back and do for your book and give new life to your book.
• 36:23
  SPEAKER_00: Also, probably the most important thing that we can do for our books is really beg people till we can get 50 Amazon reviews.
• 36:33
  SPEAKER_00: It's just begging and uh, you know, sometimes I'll like give away a book, but I'll go write it down on my calendar two months later that I go back and I ask that person to write a review.
• 36:46
  SPEAKER_01: So I do the same thing.
• 36:49
  SPEAKER_01: I always look for an excuse to get into people's mailbox.
• 36:52
  SPEAKER_01: So if somebody does something nice for me, or if they're a podcast guest, so for example, when we're finished with this, either if I remember it, uh I'll ask you for for your mailing address, Susan, or I'll do it over email, and then I'll send you something in the mail.
• 37:05
  SPEAKER_01: Uh, probably there will be a book in that package.
• 37:07
  SPEAKER_01: So I send out a lot of books, and through Amazon, they're not that expensive.
• 37:10
  SPEAKER_01: You know, if you have a kind of a regular size paperback book, it's going to be two or three bucks.
• 37:15
  SPEAKER_01: And that's not that big of an investment to send out a few dozen books to people in exchange for those reviews, since those reviews are so critical.
• 37:25
  SPEAKER_00: Right.
• 37:25
  SPEAKER_00: That's that's a great idea.
• 37:27
  SPEAKER_00: That's great.
• 37:28
  SPEAKER_00: Excellent.
• 37:30
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, and I also love just sending stuff in the mail because it is kind of a hassle to send thank you cards that are handwritten, to send books.
• 37:37
  SPEAKER_01: There's a little bit of an expense involved.
• 37:40
  SPEAKER_01: But the fact that it does have a little bit of a hassle factor means that most people are not going to do it.
• 37:45
  SPEAKER_01: So the people who want to put a little bit of that extra effort into it, you're going to really stand out because man, when you go to your mailbox and you find a handwritten card or you find a book that somebody has signed and sent to you, I mean, that's pretty cool.
• 37:58
  SPEAKER_01: That always makes me feel good when I get those kind of things in my mailbox.
• 38:01
  SPEAKER_00: Me too.
• 38:02
  SPEAKER_00: And when I do, then I'll take a picture of it next to, you know, some flowers on my table and I post it on Facebook.
• 38:09
  SPEAKER_00: Yep.
• 38:10
  SPEAKER_00: That's great.
• 38:10
  SPEAKER_00: Social, you know, that's great.
• 38:12
  SPEAKER_00: Average.
• 38:13
  SPEAKER_01: It is.
• 38:14
  SPEAKER_01: And honestly, I know this sounds probably a little grandiose, and I don't mean it to, but I feel like a life-changing purchase for me was getting a subscription to stamps.com um probably six or eight months ago and getting a postage meter and getting a uh the brand name is is I think it's Dymo.
• 38:33
  SPEAKER_01: It's a label writer for XL.
• 38:36
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, it's a thermal printer that prints out postage.
• 38:41
  SPEAKER_01: And having that stuff at home has allowed me to ship stuff way faster so I don't have to go to the post office.
• 38:47
  SPEAKER_01: That's has radically, radically changed my business, honestly, because I send out way more books than I used to because it's so convenient.
• 38:55
  SPEAKER_00: Wow, that is really good.
• 38:57
  SPEAKER_00: Say that again.
• 38:58
  SPEAKER_00: Okay, I'm learning from you here.
• 38:59
  SPEAKER_00: So say that again.
• 39:00
  SPEAKER_01: You what so I have a subscription to stamps.com, or you can do it through Pirate Ship or probably a hundred other postage.
• 39:08
  SPEAKER_00: But you like stamps.com.
• 39:09
  SPEAKER_00: Uh-huh.
• 39:10
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, that's just the the one I happened to sign up for.
• 39:12
  SPEAKER_01: And I bought a postage meter from Amazon, and I also got uh the brand name is called Dymo D Y M O.
• 39:22
  SPEAKER_01: And the the model of the thermal printer I have is called a label writer 4XL.
• 39:29
  SPEAKER_01: I think it was maybe$150 or might have been$200.
• 39:33
  SPEAKER_01: I don't think it was quite that much.
• 39:35
  SPEAKER_01: But I love the thermal printer because it doesn't ever require any ink.
• 39:39
  SPEAKER_01: And it came with this huge roll of um, you know, blank postage labels.
• 39:44
  SPEAKER_01: I'll probably won't run out of those for another year or so at least.
• 39:48
  SPEAKER_01: But it's been so great because I just put in the address, you know, I put in how much the package weighs and it spits out the label.
• 39:55
  SPEAKER_01: I put 50 or 100 bucks in my account at a time.
• 39:58
  SPEAKER_01: And uh sometimes I go through that pretty fast if I'm shipping out a bunch of books at once.
• 40:02
  SPEAKER_01: And I just go to the post office and drop them in the box, never have to go in.
• 40:06
  SPEAKER_01: It's great.
• 40:07
  SPEAKER_00: That's great.
• 40:09
  SPEAKER_00: Great idea.
• 40:10
  SPEAKER_01: So, and oh I also get bubble mailers from Amazon.
• 40:13
  SPEAKER_01: I buy those in like 50 or 100, you know, of those at once in bulk.
• 40:18
  SPEAKER_01: So having all that stuff in my home office makes a massive difference in my willingness and my excitement about mailing stuff out.
• 40:26
  SPEAKER_01: If you have all the stuff there, you can do it real fast.
• 40:29
  SPEAKER_00: Yes, that's great.
• 40:32
  SPEAKER_01: So I didn't mean to go off into a whole postage thing, but it's you know, it's this kind of stuff that does make a difference.
• 40:36
  SPEAKER_00: Right.
• 40:36
  SPEAKER_00: Um I'm in charge of the Christian Indie Awards.
• 40:40
  SPEAKER_00: And so I sh I do end up shipping a lot of books.
• 40:44
  SPEAKER_00: And so uh yeah, I could use that.
• 40:47
  SPEAKER_00: Gonna look into it.
• 40:48
  SPEAKER_00: Thank you.
• 40:49
  SPEAKER_01: Totally.
• 40:50
  SPEAKER_01: And if you you know, if you ship out a lot of the same book often, then basically you weigh it once, then you just know how much it weighs.
• 40:56
  SPEAKER_01: Then you don't have to get the postage meter out and go through all that rigmarole.
• 41:00
  SPEAKER_01: You just I just try to have systems for these things that makes it a lot faster.
• 41:04
  SPEAKER_00: Great.
• 41:05
  SPEAKER_01: And and if I'm being honest, it's really fun to print off those stickers and put them on packages.
• 41:11
  SPEAKER_01: It kind of like satisfies your inner second grader somehow.
• 41:15
  SPEAKER_01: As crazy as that sounds.
• 41:17
  SPEAKER_01: Well, Susan, this has been an absolute blast.
• 41:19
  SPEAKER_01: I have learned so much in this conversation.
• 41:21
  SPEAKER_01: I in fact, I stopped taking notes about 10 minutes in because I thought, well, she's just dumping so much great wisdom and knowledge here.
• 41:28
  SPEAKER_01: I'm just gonna have to go back and re-listen to this a couple of times to take advantage of all the amazing things that you've shared.
• 41:34
  SPEAKER_01: So thank you.
• 41:34
  SPEAKER_01: I truly appreciate it.
• 41:36
  SPEAKER_00: You're welcome.
• 41:37
  SPEAKER_00: And if you or any of your listeners would want to learn more and get lots of resources, they could go to um ChristianPublishers.net.
• 41:48
  SPEAKER_00: I'm the owner and director of Christian Indie Publishing Association, which is for independently published authors, and Christian Authors Network, which is for traditionally published authors.
• 42:00
  SPEAKER_00: And uh for$90 a year, you get 12 courses, about 20 guides, 40 discounts.
• 42:07
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, there's over a hundred products.
• 42:11
  SPEAKER_00: You get direct access to me, and so I'm always answering my members' emails and helping them in any way I can because it all furthers the kingdom of God.
• 42:24
  SPEAKER_01: Man, I absolutely love it.
• 42:25
  SPEAKER_01: I love it.
• 42:26
  SPEAKER_01: I just want to take a second to acknowledge the amazing work that you're doing.
• 42:30
  SPEAKER_01: Um, it's just been incredible chatting with you, and I can't believe I haven't connected with you before.
• 42:34
  SPEAKER_01: So I'm so thankful that Kelly made the connection for us, and I'm excited about um how we're going to connect in the future.
• 42:41
  SPEAKER_01: You're just doing some amazing work, and I'm so grateful we've had this chance to that that you've had the chance to share just a little bit of your knowledge.
• 42:48
  SPEAKER_01: And I know there's tons more that people can access through your courses and the membership and all the other things.
• 42:53
  SPEAKER_01: So thank you again.
• 42:54
  SPEAKER_01: Thank you.
• 42:56
  SPEAKER_01: Well, I hope you took notes on that conversation because I learned a lot.
• 42:59
  SPEAKER_01: And in fact, it's one of these episodes that I'm actually going to run through transcription.
• 43:04
  SPEAKER_01: I do that every once in a while with my podcast interviews, whenever I have a guest who is sharing lots of tactics and strategies and actionable steps that I need to put in place in my own business.
• 43:14
  SPEAKER_01: And as you probably know, um something I see occasionally is, you know, you guys just get to listen in for fun to this podcast.
• 43:21
  SPEAKER_01: I secretly do a podcast so I can have cool people on my show and get coaching sessions from them for free.
• 43:28
  SPEAKER_01: Now, that's that's not entirely true, but there is an element of mentoring and learning to this where I love having people on this podcast who I can learn from and who I think you can learn from as well.
• 43:38
  SPEAKER_01: So I want to thank Susan for taking the time out to be a guest and for giving us lots and lots of really great strategies.
• 43:44
  SPEAKER_01: Man, this was a lot of good stuff.
• 43:46
  SPEAKER_01: So again, I hope you took notes.
• 43:47
  SPEAKER_01: Now, I was a college professor for many years, so I'm just kind of in the mode of taking notes on things.
• 43:52
  SPEAKER_01: It's just kind of a way of life for me.
• 43:54
  SPEAKER_01: So I hope that that's a way of life for you that whenever you're listening to a podcast or reading a book or going to a conference or hearing a talk or whatever, that you're always in the habit of writing down action steps and insights and things that you can apply into your life.
• 44:08
  SPEAKER_01: There's there's a tendency that a lot of us have, especially those of us in the writing and teaching space, there's a tendency that we have to accumulate lots of knowledge and it gets tumbled around in our brains, and sometimes we don't take action on it.
• 44:22
  SPEAKER_01: I love to learn and read, and you know, I'm one of those people that loves the game trivial pursuit, but honestly, people who win trivial pursuit um oftentimes are really good at trivia, but they're not very good at taking action and actually getting things done.
• 44:36
  SPEAKER_01: So I want to encourage myself and you as well to be people of action.
• 44:40
  SPEAKER_01: And especially in this conversation today with Susan, boy, she's given us a lot of great stuff to take action on.
• 44:45
  SPEAKER_01: So don't just accumulate this knowledge, do something with it, and put it into practice.
• 44:49
  SPEAKER_01: Again, many thanks to Susan for taking the time out to be a guest today on this episode.
• 44:53
  SPEAKER_01: Before I wrap up, I do want to let you know that today's episode is sponsored by Indie Author University, featuring the Book Marketing Mastery course.
• 45:02
  SPEAKER_01: If you're tired of being disappointed by your book sales and you want to sell more books faster, easier, and with more fun than ever, make sure and sign up today.
• 45:10
  SPEAKER_01: This brand new course is fantastic.
• 45:12
  SPEAKER_01: I've taken it myself and I've started to apply what I'm learning.
• 45:15
  SPEAKER_01: To sign up for Book Marketing Mastery, visit DailyWriterLife.comslash bookmarketing mastery and use the code dailywriter.
• 45:23
  SPEAKER_01: That's all one word, daily writer to get 10% off.
• 45:27
  SPEAKER_01: Thanks for listening, and I'll see you tomorrow.