Welcome to the 11th episode of The Author Hangout, a “Hangout on Air” designed to help authors, especially self-published and indie authors, with marketing their books and improving their author platform. Authors struggle with various aspects of marketing and we are here to help!
“Thank you Shawn Manaher and R.J. Adams for such an informative hangout!”– Juan Carlos Diaz
“So happy things will be getting back to normal with these hangouts. I learned so much last season. I can’t wait for each one.”– Kristie L. Foreman
Season 2 Premiere: Bigger & Better
The Author Hangout is back! After a great first season, we took the summer off to look back at the good parts and the parts that needed improvement from Season 1. Then we brainstormed and now we’re back with some great ideas, amazing interviews, and more book marketing tips and advice for you!
We introduced a new co-host, R.J., and we walked through what Book Marketing Tools has been up to this summer, as well as what we have in store for Season 2 of The Author Hangout!
The Author Hangout – Episode 11: “Season 2 Premiere: Bigger & Better”
Listen to the Show / Podcast
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Episode Resources:
- FREE: The Ultimate Author Checklist for Online Book Marketing
- ReadingDeals.com – Promote your free and bargain books!
- eBook Submission Tool – Submit your free ebooks to 30+ sites in just minutes!
- Reading Deals Book Reviews – Coming very, very soon!
Intro
This was a different show than normal. Usually we have a guest on, and we definitely have plenty of guests lined up this season, but we wanted to get everyone up to speed on what we’ve been up to this summer with Book Marketing Tools, all of the changes coming for The Author Hangout, and how you can continue to connect with us!
Let’s dive right in!
Introducing R.J.
R.J. shared a bit about his story, and how he has always seemed to be gravitating towards books, with his first job at Barnes & Noble, working at his schools’ publishing arm in college, and then becoming a self-published author several years later.
R.J. now runs eBooksHabit.com and BookTweeters.com to help authors promote their books, as well as running things behind the scenes, and now on air with The Author Hangout.
Changes to The Author Hangout
Our first season was awesome…. it was a learning curve, we helped a lot of authors and continue to help people who are just now finding The Author Hangout on YouTube and iTunes and Stitcher. But, we knew it could be better, and we want to get more and more interviews to you, the author, so changes had to happen to be able to accomplish that!
Here are some of the changes that you can expect to see on this season of The Author Hangout:
- Less Live Shows – Because the Google Hangouts sometimes came with technological glitches and stress, we’re moving to a podcast-only format. We will have the occasional live show, but for the most part, it will be podcast only, available on iTunes and Stitcher. The other benefit is that we were able to get guests on that we couldn’t before, because of the time slot.
- Weekly Show – Instead of every other week like we did in Season 1, we are now going to be bringing you interviews with industry experts and bestselling authors every single week! This is more content for you to enjoy!
- Guests – We have an amazing list of interviews with amazing guests lined up. Some of those include Hugh Howey, Joanna Penn, Sean Platt, Shelley Hitz, and more! Hugh will talk about author earnings and some industry updates that affect authors like you directly. Joanna Penn talks a bit about the self-publishing mindset and some book marketing tools. Sean Platt brings the business of being an author to the forefront and how to take your business to the next level. Shelley Hitz will talk about how to get reviews for your book!
- And many more! – We have 12 interviews lined up for this season, which will take us through the end of 2014!
The Author Hangout is our educational component of our mission here at Book Marketing Tools, so we really aim to bring you value through this interview series!
Updates to Book Marketing Tools
Another portion of our mission is providing tools for authors, so we wanted to provide an update about what tools we have been working on over the summer to help you, the author, to market your books easier!
- eBook Submission Tool – Near the end of last season, we launched the eBook Submission Tool, which allows authors to submit their book promotion details to 30+ free ebook sites in just minutes. Doing this manually is a ton of work and it takes hours. Using our tool, you only have to fill out one form and then submit to those 30+ sites in just minutes!
- New Tuesday Tips – If you are on our mailing list, you received new book marketing tips and advice every single week on Tuesdays. The problem was, the way it was structured, you couldn’t get up-to-date tips. Now, we have restructured it so that we’ll be able to bring you the best, most up-to-date, exclusive free content on our Tuesday Tips mailing list. To join the list, and get a free guide called The Ultimate Author Checklist, then go here to get the free guide and get on our list!
- ReadingDeals.com – We know that authors need more and more sites to promote their free and bargain books. We are aggressively finding readers who want to find out about book promos in various genres, at ReadingDeals.com. That way, they only receive books in the genres they are interested! We have free and low-cost submission options available for authors.
- Reading Deals Book Reviews – A week or two from when this episode airs, we will be launching a new tool that allows you to get more reviews, honest reviews, from readers. We have a readers Review Club where we connect with readers, and offer free copies of the books in exchange for honest reviews. You are not paying for reviews, we do not compensate our reviewers aside from the free copy of your book, an they acknowledge so to remain in compliance with the Amazon guidelines.
Wrapping It Up, and Next Week’s Episode!
Be sure that you’re on our mailing list to get our Tuesday Tips!
Also, if you could please take a moment to leave a review for our podcast, we’d greatly appreciate it! Just like reviews help a book to do better, reviews for our podcast help us to reach more authors who are searching iTunes for book marketing tips. Please go to iTunes, search for The Author Hangout, then go to Reviews & Rating, and leave a review for us. Thank you in advance… it’s a huge help!
Next week’s episode features Hugh Howey talking about author earnings and industry updates!
Please Leave Us A Review
Just like authors do with their books, we need reviews for our podcast! Reviews for our podcast help other authors to learn about and learn from The Author Hangout. Can you take a moment to leave a review for our podcast? If you don’t know how but are willing to leave a review, please go here to learn how to leave a quick review for our podcast. It will only take a minute, but it will help a lot.
Thank you so much!
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- Stitcher… If you prefer Stitcher for your podcast listening, you can listen to our podcast here.
Other Episodes
Get caught up on the other episodes of The Author Hangout that you may have missed:
- Ep 145: “Million Dollar Book Business”
- Ep 144: “Network Net Worth”
- Ep 143: “Learning to Hack Learning”
- Ep 142: “Making Of The Perfect Optin”
- Ep 141: “Coaching Breeds Author Success”
- Ep 140: “Gumroad for Authors”
- Ep 139: “Above The Noise”
- Ep 138: “Goal Setting Check-in”
- Ep 137: “Relying On Others”
- Ep 136: “Honest Conversations on Book Marketing”
- Ep 135: “Recognition of Hard Work”
- Ep 134: “Improving Kindle Book Rankings”
- Ep 133: “Making Money Fast?”
- Ep 132: “Book Marketing & Book Launches”
- Ep 131: “Authors Answers: How To Get Book Reviews”
- Ep 130: “Author Answers: Author Street Teams”
- Ep 129: “Author Answers: Using KDP Select or Not”
- Ep 128: “Traffic, Subscribers, and Sales”
- Ep 127: “Book Marketing Tips from Experts (Part 7)”
- Ep 126: “Media Interviews & Book Marketing”
- Ep 125: “Book Marketing Tips from Experts (Part 6)”
- Ep 124: “Goal Setting for Authors”
- Ep 123: “Author Answers: Social Media Engagement”
- Ep 122: “Speaking, Podcasts & Mailing Lists”
- Ep 121: “Authors Answers: DIY Blog Tours”
- Ep 120: “Book Launches & Pay-Per-Click Advertising”
- Ep 119: “Author Answers: Choosing Comparison Titles”
- Ep 118: “Writing as a Career & Audiobooks”
- Ep 117: “Self-Publishing & Book Launches”
- Ep 116: “Podcasting for Book Marketing”
- Ep 115: “Author Answers: Best Marketing Activities”
- Ep 114: “Book Launches & Video Marketing”
- Ep 113: “Writing Faster, Marketing Smarter”
- Ep 112: “Book Marketing Momentum”
- Ep 111: “Building Book Launch Teams”
- Ep 110: “Book Launches and Distribution”
- Ep 109: “Email Lists & Facebook Live”
- Ep 108: “Facebook Ads for Book Marketing”
- Ep 107: “NaNoWriMo, Writing, and Marketing”
- Ep 106: “Book Marketing Success & Failure”
- Ep 105: “Telling Stories & Reaching Readers”
- Ep 104: “Connect With Other Authors”
- Ep 103: “Maximizing Your Book Marketing”
- Ep 102: “Audiobooks and Book Marketing”
- Ep 101: “Author Email Marketing Automation”
- Ep 100: “Looking Back, Looking Forward”
- Ep 099: “Maximizing Book Promotions”
- Ep 098: “Meta Data Is Your Brand”
- Ep 097: “Kindle in Motion & More”
- Ep 086 – How To Create an Irresistible Opt-In Incentive