New and exclusive to Hot Sheet: We round up insights and select podcast episodes you may want to consider during your next commute or listening session
We’ll start by stating the obvious: It is not feasible to keep up with the volume of interesting podcasts now available in the writing and publishing community—especially when so few offer transcripts or even good show notes. (We are grateful to The Creative Penn for being one of the only shows that does offer a transcript.)
However, we’ve taken it upon ourselves to try—on some level—to offer Hot Sheet readers a guide to some of the notable episodes we’ve spotted or scrubbed through. Here’s our first roundup.
- Email marketing best practices (The Creative Penn Podcast / Interview with Tammi Labrecque): To build your list, Labrecque says, “If you only have one book, I think the best thing you can do for yourself is to write a story to go along with it, a prequel. If you’re writing something that has villains, people love a prequel that shows how the villain became the bad guy. If you’re writing paranormal romance, people love a prequel or a scene that’s in the book told from the point of view of the hero instead of the heroine.” Also, she says, “When people unsubscribe from my list—this is my best ninja trick—the page that they get and the follow-up email that they get has links to follow me on Amazon and on BookBub. So if you just want to know when there’s a new book, click one of these and you can go follow me there.”
- Overinvesting and underinvesting in marketing (Create If Writing 149): Show host Kirsten Oliphant discusses equal and opposite errors: over-investing (and in the wrong places) and not investing any money but still thinking that you can make money. The episode page includes helpful summary notes if you don’t have time to listen.
- Launching a new author pen name (The Sell More Books Show 252): An indie author has success with a new pen name in 30 days using a write-to-market strategy. Start at the 51-minute mark. Also on this topic, see the Science Fiction & Fantasy Marketing Podcast (219). It’s an interview with novelist Chris Philbrook, notable for aspects of his success that aren’t very replicable today—e.g., being able to build an audience for fiction on his website during the Facebook era of 2010–2011 (when organic reach was still possible). Discussion eventually segues into developing a pen name for the YA market and adjusting marketing approach.
- Marketing plans for 2019 (Science Fiction & Fantasy Marketing Podcast 213): The show notes include a list of marketing topics covered, which should help you decide if it’s worth your time to dip in.
- Selling through Google Play (ALLi podcast / January 2019 Q&A): Now that Google Play is once again allowing authors to set up accounts to sell ebooks directly through their online store, a pricing dilemma has surfaced. Unlike other retailers, Google Play will discount around 20 percent or more from the price you set. For example, if you set the ebook price at $5.49, the ebook might in fact sell at $4.29. Therefore, you have to set a higher price point to ensure you don’t undercut your pricing at Amazon. (Amazon will price-match if it sees Google selling at a lower price.) Fortunately, Google Play pricing updates in near real time, so you can tweak on the fly as needed.
- Interested in recording your own audiobooks? (ALLi podcast 131): Indie author Joanna Penn mentions that she has invested in one-on-one voice coaching to create quality audiobook editions of her novels. She considers it a new art form and experience—and concludes that narrating one’s own work “is not for most authors at all.”
- New podcast alert: Relentless Authors Advertise. Bryan Cohen of The Sell More Books Show has launched a new podcast on learning how to advertise your books.
Bottom line: If you’d like to recommend a show for us to track or inform us of a useful episode we might mention next time, just respond to this email with your suggestion. Remember: We’re interested in business discussion and not craft discussion.
Jane Friedman has spent her entire career working in the publishing industry, with a focus on business reporting and author education. Established in 2015, her newsletter The Bottom Line provides nuanced market intelligence to thousands of authors and industry professionals; in 2023, she was named Publishing Commentator of the Year by Digital Book World.
Jane’s expertise regularly features in major media outlets such as The New York Times, The Atlantic, NPR, The Today Show, Wired, The Guardian, Fox News, and BBC. Her book, The Business of Being a Writer, Second Edition (The University of Chicago Press), is used as a classroom text by many writing and publishing degree programs. She reaches thousands through speaking engagements and workshops at diverse venues worldwide, including NYU’s Advanced Publishing Institute, Frankfurt Book Fair, and numerous MFA programs.
