Top Book Marketing Tips From Podcasts

Podcasts are an incredible resource for learning to market your writing.

Not only do you get access to some of the best marketing minds on the planet, but you do so no matter where you are. You can turn your morning commute or time on the treadmill into a book marketing masterclass.

Here are four great publishing podcasts along with a useful idea from each. Each podcast contains a wealth of episodes and information so if you find one you like, be sure to look back through the archives and see what else will add value to your book marketing efforts.

You Can Succeed Starting From Zero – Rocking Self Publishing Episode 181

One of the biggest stumbling blocks for a lot of new writers is confidence and self belief. It’s often easy to look at the success of other writers and assume they had a special advantage or something else working in their favor which allowed them to get ahead.

Michelle Spiva is an author who was challenged to start from scratch using a new name in a new genre. Episode 181 of Rocking Self Publishing explores the process she used to experience success despite starting from a blank slate.

The episode is both useful and inspiring. It shows how it’s possible to experience self-publishing success by taking an innovative approach to book marketing. Michelle was able to find a lot of unconventional and low-cost ways to break into her new genre. The episode also teaches the importance of understanding tropes and reader expectations within any given genre to give the fans what they want.

Carry Out Genre Research Before Writing – Self Publishing Formula Episode 65

Mark Dawson is one of the major-league self-publishing success stories and his Self Publishing Formula podcast is packed full of useful and applicable info. In Episode 65, Mark chats with Bryan Spangler of Genre Report to discuss the importance of considering genre before writing.

The benefits of having a defined genre to work in for book marketers are many. It allows you to know which readers to target and what their expectations might be. It allows you to run specific promotion and advertisement campaigns targeted at and worded for a very specific niche audience.

Exploring genres can also help guide your writing process. You might have a vague idea for a story or character that is shaped more clearly by your genre exploration.

Launch Your Book The Right Way – The Author Hangout Episode 132

Episode 132 of The Author Hangout looks into the process of making the most of your book launch.

A common mistake by new book marketers is to put their heart and soul intro writing the book and leave nothing left in the tank for the launch. This is often worsened by the fact that launching a book is a complex process offering many options. It can be difficult to know the right way to go.

In this podcast, the importance of editing your book prior to launch is thoroughly discussed. Editing is emphasized as one of the absolute most crucial areas of expenditure that shouldn’t be skimped on.

The episode also stresses that it’s vital to adopt different mindsets as an author and publisher, even when you are carrying out both roles.

Market With The Future In Mind – Author Platform Rocket Episode 3

Episode 3 of Author Platform Rocket dives deep into how to combine different book marketing tactics into a coherent strategy which works both in the short and long terms.

If you are at the stage where you are looking to build a long-term foundation for your self-publishing career, this episode is essential listening. It explores not only the tactics that exist to build your author platform, but also the reason behind using them and how to measure their effectiveness.

By finding the right combination of short and long term marketing efforts, as suggested here, you can establish an author platform which bears fruit in both the near and distant future.

Book Marketing Podcast Key Takeaways

You will learn so much from taking the time to delve through the archives of the podcasts above and find the most useful ideas for your own situation as an author. The key takeaways from these specific episodes are –

• It’s impossible to succeed in a new genre, even starting from scratch, as long as you understand the genre and reach its fans creatively
• By carrying out genre research ahead of writing, you can get a good idea of what is and isn’t selling, and how to make your book suitable for a particular genre
• Launching your book requires a different outlook than writing it, and editing is an essential pre-launch step
• Combining tactics that have a short and a long term aim is a proven way of building a long-term author platform