This week Cara & James touch on the subject of influencers and how to use them. James also talks about the coming AI storm for ads, he reports on AuthorNation and rants about the cost of living!

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In this week's episode, James reports from AuthorNation, indie publishing's largest conference. The talk is of new technology, a recent slump in ads effectiveness and the possibility of more seismic changes to come!

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This week we delve into the intriguing world of ghost writing. You might know Cara is/has been, a professional ghost writer and she spills the beans on this industry that takes place largely in the shadows.

We also touch on the sudden epidemic of author scams using AI to highly personalise the first approaches.

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This week we have a bona fide guest! Cissy Mecca is a close friend and fellow author whose work I'm constantly admiring—she's brilliant at finding innovative ways to streamline our publishing workflow. (And she's an incredible writer, too.)

We recently stayed together in Florence, and I was fascinated watching her receive her daily structure from her assistant "Pedro." Turns out Pedro isn't a person at all, but an AI she's trained to organize her entire work life, freeing her up to focus on the creativity she loves.

I've already started training my own AI, Princess Leia, and I'm loving it.

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We discuss the the state of Trad vs Indie after a couple of comments from notable authors and commentators and come to an interesting conclusion!

Also - it's possible Taylor Swift is secretly self-publishing poetry on Amazon KDP! We look at the evidence and implications...

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Much has happened behind the scenes of the Facebook Ads Manager and so james is setting out a series of tests. spending money on various combinations of Adv+ and manual targeting to see what's working now.

James also reveals the finalists for the 2025 Amazon Kindle Storyteller Award without giving away any judging secrets!

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It's Friday! It's the Indie Writers Club!

We continue our deep dive into the new era of searching using AI.

Even if you are dead set against all things AI - you cannot ignore the fact that readers will be searching for your books using AI in the future. That means you need to adapt the way you describe your books, where you list them and a host of other things.

If you want to learn more on this subject, I'd encourage you to sign up to Reedys's Ricardo Fayet's newsletter here: https://www.indiewritersclub.com/ricardo.

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The era of keywords and Google searches is coming to an end. Searching through a longer form conversation with an AI is already taking over. That means we need to get our blurbs and book packages ready for the new era.

James & Cara discuss the take-aways from NINC including Ricardo Fayet's talk on GEO.

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In episode 55, James reports from the Floridian beach where he's attending the annual NINC conference. He and Cara also report some encouraging signs from their Facebook Ads campaigns.

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Making the switch from hobbyist to full-time author is a dream for many. But it comes with its own challenges. From two of us who have become full time self-employed, we go through some of the pitfalls and areas to think about.

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