Is hiring a publicist a waste of money or not?

A typical book publicist charges between $3,000 and $10,000 per month, and they often require a three-month minimum. At $3 of profit per book, you'd need to sell 5,000 copies just to break even. Most PR campaigns don't come close to selling 5,000 copies.

But the publicist gets paid either way, while the author takes all the risk.

Here's what most authors don't know: the access publicists used to sell is now free.

There are tens of thousands of podcasts looking for guests, and you don't need a gatekeeper to get in. You just need to know how to pitch a podcast.

In this week's episode, Podcast Hall of Famer Dave Jackson shares exactly how to do that. You’ll learn

• What makes a host delete your pitch after reading one sentence
• How to identify podcasts that will yield the best results for sales and growing your readership.
• How to nail the interview and get invited back (hint: you’ll need the right microphone and the right content)
• Which tools can save you time and headache

If you want to spread the word about your book but don’t want to spend the money hiring a public relations professional, listen in or read the blog version to discover how you can.

Blog Link: https://www.authormedia.com/authors-pr-playbook-how-to-get-media-coverage-without-a-publicist/

Guest: Dave Jackson (School of Podcasting, Podcast Hall of Fame) Topic: Earned media for authors, with podcast guesting as the core strategy

YT Link: https://youtu.be/r14ixF0WLJU

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Do you feel like an imposter as a writer?

You probably are. Most authors who experience imposter syndrome are imposters, but they don't have to be!

As the saying goes, “There are no good writers; just bad writers who didn’t quit.”

Every author starts off as a bad writer. To make a living at writing you must improve through hard work, determination, and training. 

In this week’s episode, you’ll hear from Chris Fox, author of over 80 books and three million copies sold. 

You'll learn:

• Why not knowing your reader's emotional motivation is costing you sales
• How word order affects your readers experience
• How Grammarly is making your writing worse
• How authors accidentally protect their characters and ruin their books.

If something isn’t clicking with your writing, listen in or read the blog version to find out what you should be looking for and how you can fix it.

Blog Link: https://www.authormedia.com/how-to-level-up-your-writing-with-chris-fox/

Authormedia.social:  https://authormedia.social/c/novel-marketing/how-to-level-up-your-writing-with-chris-fox

YT Link: https://youtu.be/DanstjzQs6A

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Are your book sales stuck? Maybe sales have slowed. Maybe your launch never took off. Or maybe you're spending money on ads without seeing results.

This week on Novel Marketing, Amazon ad specialist Bryan Canter explains how "promo stacking" can revive a struggling book and put it in front of new readers.

You'll learn:

• What promo stacking is and why it works
• Which promotions deliver the best ROI for your genre
• The ideal order and timing for each promotion
• How promo stacking can generate more reader reviews

Whether your book launched last month or five years ago, you’ll learn how promo stacking can rescue a dead book and reach new readers when you listen in or read the blog version.

Blog Link: https://www.authormedia.com/how-to-revive-a-dead-book-with-a-promo-stacking/

AuthorMedia Social Link: https://authormedia.social/c/novel-marketing/how-to-revive-a-dead-book-with-promo-stacking

YouTube Link: https://youtu.be/v2KN46pdbRw

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Instead of a guest interview or a marketing deep-dive, in this week’s episode I'm inviting you to something I've spent years building for authors who want to be taken seriously.

You’ll discover:

How you can get lifetime access to my $249 course this month for $0

How you can get your questions answered by me live on a monthly basis

How you can get my digital doppelgänger (ie. AI Thomas) to answer your questions faster and (sometimes better) than I can.

Listen to this short episode or read the blog version to take advantage of these benefits before the end of the month.

Blog link: https://www.authormedia.com/why-im-giving-away-a-249-course-this-month/

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A writers conference with no pitch appointments, no breakout tracks, and no recordings? What’s left? A conference that sold out last year! The Novel Marketing Conference is different, and every single attendee that responded to our survey said they were glad they came in 2026.

In this week's episode, I break down exactly why I removed those traditional writers conference elements and what we added instead. Here are three things you'll learn:

• Which feature past attendees consistently name as the most valuable part of the entire weekend.
• Which parts of the Novel Marketing method you can only learn in person at the conference.
• What we’re adding to Thursday night’s ice-cream social in 2027!

The 2027 conference is already filling up. Super tickets are gone, but standard and gallery tickets are still available. Don’t wait to secure your spot. There's a live count of available tickets at NovelMarketingConference.com. When they're gone, they're gone.

Listen to the full episode, read the blog version, or watch on YouTube to get the complete schedule and see why this might be the best investment you make in your writing career this year.

Blog link: https://www.authormedia.com/announcing-the-2027-novel-marketing-conference/

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Have you ever finished a book you loved, handed it to a friend, and heard back, "It was fine"?

That disconnect has nothing to do with the quality of the writing. It has everything to do with a principle C.S. Lewis understood well enough to write classics that have endured for decades.

In this week's episode, I sat down with bestselling novelist Angela Hunt to break down the four ancient loves that drive all fiction, and how mastering them can help you produce a bestseller and a classic.

You’ll learn

• The type of love almost every genre needs more of, and why the most violent stories need it most.
• How the loneliness epidemic is creating a massive hunger in readers, and which type of love lonely readers are yearning for.
• The type of love that makes for a classic but is hardest to write and easiest to botch. Get it wrong and your climax feels cheesy. Get it right and readers won't shut up about your book.

We also explore the dark side of each love and how to use that tension to propel your plot forward.

If the stakes in your story aren’t working or you’re sick of cheap, salacious storylines, listen in or read the blog version to learn how to incorporate these four types of love into your story. This one might change how you outline your next book or build your characters.

Blog link: https://www.authormedia.com/the-four-loves-that-drive-fiction/

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The difference between making thousands of dollars on your next book and losing money can come down to a few cents per click.

If your ads generate even a few pennies of net profit, you can run them until you've sold tens of thousands of books. But if you're losing money, no amount of spending will fix it.

 In this week's episode, David Gaughran, a veteran of digital advertising, joins me to talk about how to make your book advertising actually pay you back.

Here's a taste of what you’ll learn:

• Why the authors spending the most on Facebook ads are often doing it wrong (and what to do instead)
• The marketing asset that makes every advertising endeavor more profitable
• How to reach your exact readers on Facebook now that author targeting is gone

Listen in or read the blog version to discover how to approach book advertising strategically. You will feel more confident about when to advertise and when to invest your time (and dollars) elsewhere.

Blog Link: https://www.authormedia.com/15-rules-for-book-advertising-with-david-gaughran/

Author Media.social link: (Live at 11:02 AM on May 6) https://authormedia.social/c/novel-marketing/15-rules-for-book-advertising-with-david-gaughran

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We’ve arrived! It’s the 500th episode of Novel Marketing.

To celebrate, I’m giving away the MacBook Neo I reviewed a few episodes ago, but I’m also revealing my worst takes and biggest mistakes over the past 500 episodes.

Some of those takes were correct, but when circumstances changed, the advice was no longer good. But sometimes, I was wrong from the start. Gather ‘round and hear the tale of the evolution of the host and his book marketing advice.

Listen in or read the blog to find out which pieces of advice have stood the test of time (and always will) and which pieces you can cast off like a crumpled first draft.

And don’t forget to enter to win the MacBook Neo! You can find links and details on the blog or YouTube.

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Most authors can tell you their royalties but not their net profit per book. They spend money on ads, see sales come in, and assume things are fine. But are they? Sales and profit are not the same thing.

How can you find out if you’re making money or just making sales?

In this week’s episode, you’ll hear from Eiri Theodorou, founder of Publisher Champ, an analytics platform used by over 25,000 authors.

You’ll learn

• How one of Amazon’s metrics is somewhat misleading (and how to find the truth)
• How you can track real-world marketing (like speaking and interviews) in a dashboard
• How to find out if your best-selling book is masking problems with your other books.

If you want to stop guessing about your profitability, listen in or read the blog version. You’ll be able to invest in marketing with more certainty and become truly profitable.

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There’s a culture shift underway that most authors aren’t seeing. Even traditional publishers can’t figure out why their titles are resonating. If your book isn’t selling, it could be a cover or craft problem, but it might be a zeitgeist problem.  

In this week’s episode, you’ll hear from fantasy and LitRPG author Seth Ring. We discuss the biggest cultural shift in storytelling in two decades and what it means for your books.

You’ll discover

• What’s become of the morally conflicted anti-hero trope
• What readers are tired of and hungry for
• A sure-fire way to write a story that resonates for this new zeitgeist

This cultural shift puts authors in a uniquely strategic place. If you want to make an impact with your writing and bring hope and change to the world through stories, it’s your time to shine. Listen in or read the blog version to find out how.

Blog Link: https://www.authormedia.com/the-cultural-zeitgeist-shift-thats-making-indie-authors-rich/

AuthorMedia.social link:  https://authormedia.social/c/novel-marketing/the-cultural-zeitgeist-shift-that-s-making-indie-authors-rich

YouTube Link:
https://youtu.be/zVz0pd-P3TU

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