Reedsy Live webinars

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Hi, there 👋 Our most popular webinar series is back! That's right, I'm hosting another exciting cover critique on Reedsy Live and this week, I'll be joined by superstar book designer Micaela Alcaino. Micaela has most recently worked as a senior designer for Harper Collins —where she created stunning covers for genres ranging from Thriller and Fantasy to YA and Non-Fiction. For this Reedsy Live, Micaela will review over 20 author-submitted designs and give you her opinion, advice and positive suggestions on how to make sure your cover works. To seize this opportunity (and find out how to submit your own cover design) register for free right now. REGISTER FOR FREE Also, make sure you never miss a webinar. Add Reedsy Live to your Google Calendar or add it to your iCal. See you Live on Wednesday! Martin @ Reedsy Connecting authors with the industry's best editors, designers, and book marketers. Learn more about our services Copyright © 2019 Reedsy

Hi, there 👋 I’m super excited this week because I have a cool gift for you (from David Gaughran, no less!). But you’ll have to wait until the end of the email to get it! Of course, you can always scroll down, but then you’ll miss all of the awesome tips in the middle 😉 So let’s jump into it. If you remember, last week’s marketing newsletter was all about driving traffic to your book pages. We established that the best way to achieve that is to run price promotions, and then use price promotion sites (like Bookbub) to reach readers hungry for free and discounted books. The small issue with this strategy is that there’s only a limited amount of promo sites that are really worth it in each genre — and they generally prevent you from running the same promo over and over again. Bookbub, for example, will not feature the same book more than once every 6 months. Nor will they feature the same author more than once every 3 months! If your submission is rejected (as it very well might be), you have to wait four weeks to re-submit. So what can you do to complement the price promo sites? Well, the answer is pretty clear: do some advertising on your own.   The power of “free” and “$0.99” See, the reason why all of these promo sites have hundreds of thousands (or millions, in Bookbub’s case) of readers is because they’ve run a lot of ads to grow their mailing list. And what do their ads promise readers? Free and discounted books. “Deals” and “sales” are things that readers are always going to go for. In fact, the word “free” or a “$0.99” price tag are probably the two things that will have the most impact on a book advertisement. Think about it from a reader’s perspective: you’re sipping a cup of coffee and happily scrolling through your Facebook feed when you come across an ad about a book (from an unknown author) that nevertheless looks interesting. You click on it, and land on the Amazon page. What do you do next? If you have a lot of time on your hands, you might read the blurb, reviews, and first chapter to make sure that the book is really worth it. Then you'd decide whether or not to purchase it. But I’m betting you don’t have all that time. So you’ll want to make a decision right away, and that decision will basically be a gamble: “Do I gamble my money on this book from an author I’ve never heard about in my life?” That’s where the price comes in. Taking a gamble on a $0.99 book is much, much easier than taking a gamble on a $4.99, $3.99 or even $2.99 book. Especially when there are already so many other books out there (from authors you actually know) that you could also be reading for just $2.99. That’s why free and $0.99 are so powerful when it comes to ads — and how all of these book promo sites have built their list. But here’s the good news: you can easily replicate this on your end. If you have a free or $0.99 book, try running some ads of your own.   Running self-serve Bookbub ads Now, there are two main advertising platforms that work really well when it comes to advertising free/discounted books. The first one is Facebook, but it’s by far the most complicated, so I’m actually planning a whole book about it. That’s not to say that I won't share some handy tips for Facebook ads in upcoming newsletters, but for now I want to focus on the second big advertising platform: Bookbub. Note: if you’re wondering why I’m not mentioning Amazon’s advertising platform, it’s because I don’t think it’s as effective as Bookbub and Facebook for pushing free/discounted books. It is, however, a much better platform to advertise full-price books. I’ve run a few Bookbub ads for author friends and clients, but I wouldn’t consider myself an expert on it. There is, however, a proper expert out there who recently released a book on the topic: David Gaughran, who I’ve mentioned a few times in my past newsletters. He’s been kind enough to contribute a free email course to our roster of Reedsy Learning courses. So if you’re curious about running Bookbub ads, the best thing you can do this week is sign up for it here — and enjoy learning from him over the next 10 days! Until then, Ricardo, Founder @ Reedsy Connecting authors with the industry's best editors, designers, and book marketers. Learn more about our services Copyright © 2019 Reedsy "If there's a book that you want to read, but it hasn't been written yet, then you must write it."  That's a quote from Toni Morrison, expressing a belief that most indie authors share — even if we struggle to express it as elegantly as she does. But isn't that the hallmark of great writing? To communicate an idea clearly, succinctly, and with panache. On the blog this week, we've uncovered over 150 of our favorite quotes on writing. Ranging from inspirational bon mots from Jack Kerouac to editing wisdom from H.G. Wells, these quotes will make you laugh, smile, and shake your head. I bet you're going to find at least one quote that you can't wait to share with your friends. Read 150+ Writing Quotes If we missed out on one of your favorite quotes, be sure to drop me a reply. We may just add it in our next update! 😀 Happy writing! Martin @ Reedsy Connecting authors with the industry's best editors, designers, and book marketers. Learn more about our services Copyright © 2019 Reedsy Hi, there 👋 Now that the launch of Reedsy Discovery is behind us, I can breathe a bit again and return to my favorite Reedsy activity: writing our weekly marketing newsletter! Remember: you can unsubscribe from it at any time by simply updating your preferences. For anyone who’s new here: I include an actionable marketing idea in each newsletter, but they do usually follow a logical structure. In the past few months, I tackled how authors can convert casual Amazon (or other bookstore) browsers into buyers. You can find all of the emails in this series here: What is the conversion funnel How to track conversion through affiliate programs Optimizing your book cover Optimizing your blurb Optimizing your reviews Now that you know all about conversion, it’s time to talk about bringing in traffic, i.e. getting readers to find your book in the first place. And what’s the best way to do that? Running a price promotion. If you’re already familiar with this strategy, skip to the bottom of the email, where I share a juicy little resource for you. If you’re not — keep reading.   Running a price promotion Have you noticed how shops start getting swarmed by shoppers as soon as the sales season begins? Well, the same principle goes for books. If you want to increase the “discoverability” of your product, discounting it for a short period of time (and promoting this sale) is the best way to do it. That’s what we call a “price promotion.” “Sure, I might get more sales if I discount my book — but since I make less money on each sale, does it really matter?” In a word: yes. If you’re selling on Amazon (or Apple Books, Kobo, B&N, etc.), a sale isn’t just worth the money you get out of it. It also has an impact on your book’s ranking in search results and bestseller lists, which in turn will trigger even more sales. That’s the whole objective of running a price promotion: hitting enough “visibility spots” on retailers so that, when the promotion is over, your book will continue to sell well — at full price.   Promoting your discounted book Now, a few years ago, setting a book to free/$0.99 on the Kindle store was enough to fetch thousands of downloads/sales. Not only is that not the case anymore today, but if you don’t actively promote your discounted or free book, you might not see any increase in sales. Price promotions don’t magically sell books. However, they do make it incredibly easier to market a book. First, discounts have a psychological impact on readers: you might not take a chance on a new author if their book is selling at $4.99, but you probably wouldn’t mind downloading their book for free on your Kindle, or getting it for $0.99. More importantly, discounting your book gives you access to a whole suite of tools and sites that can help you promote your book. We call them “price promotion sites.” In a nutshell, price promotion sites are basically websites/newsletters (or both) that 1. have a pre-established readerbase, and 2. regularly advertise discounted/free books to that readerbase. As an author, you can pay to acquire a spot on their site/newsletter to advertise your book to their readers. The most famous book promotion service is Bookbub, but it’s pretty infamously hard to grab a spot on it as an indie writer. You would need dozens (if not hundreds) of already-acquired reviews, a lot of luck, and many tries. That said, there are hundreds of smaller sites with a similar model to Bookbub, and it’s easier to get a spot on them. You should still apply several weeks in advance, making sure that your book has enough reviews already (most will ask to see at least 10-15 reviews). Now, not all these sites are worth it. Which is why we created a handy little resource at Reedsy: a directory of price promo sites classified into tiers. Stick to tiers 1 and 2 if you’re short on budget — they have the best chance of a positive return on investment. Promo sites aren’t the only way to advertise a discounted book, of course. You can also run Facebook or Bookbub ads on your own — but more on that next week! Until then, Ricardo, Founder @ Reedsy Connecting authors with the industry's best editors, designers, and book marketers. Learn more about our services Copyright © 2019 Reedsy Hi, there 👋 For a moment, imagine that writing a novel is like a long walk through a forest. Experienced authors are seasoned hikers: they've been here many times before. Even if they haven't memorized every square inch of the woods, they know that if they set out, they'll eventually get where they need to go. For first-time novelists, however, this can be a daunting prospect. What if there are bears? 🐻What if you run out of water? 💦What if you get lost and you have to live in the woods forever?! 😱 This week at the Reedsy blog, we've created a trail map for novelists: our super-comprehensive, 15-step guide to writing a novel that will help you enjoy your journey into the forest of your imagination — and emerge with a book you're proud of. FULL POST: HOW TO WRITE A NOVEL Of course, there’s no one right way to write a novel, just as there’s no single path through a forest. But if you're worried about losing your way, our guide is something you can use to keep you on track. Happy trails (and watch out for them bears!) Martin @ Reedsy Connecting authors with the industry's best editors, designers, and book marketers. Learn more about our services Copyright © 2019 Reedsy Hi, there 👋 I hope that by now you heard the news about Reedsy Discovery! We’re incredibly excited about launching it, as we’ve been working on it for the past year. If you still don’t know what it’s all about, read our announcement here. You can also listen to me getting grilled about it by Kevin Tumlinson on the Wordslinger podcast here. With the launch behind me, it’s now time to resume my usual weekly marketing newsletters! In particular, I'll be continuing my analysis of the conversion funnel — i.e. the different steps that readers take between finding your book and, well, purchasing it. Previously in this series, we covered: how the reader judges your book by its cover [link]; and how the reader gets hooked — or bored — by your blurb [link]. Assuming your cover and blurb are on point, what’s the third thing most readers are going to look at before they purchase? Your reviews. My very first Reedsy marketing newsletter (from over a year ago!) actually tackled the topic of reviews (read here), but I wanted to revisit it from a conversion angle today.   Quantity vs quality I see a lot of confusion and myths out there about book reviews. The biggest one, probably, is that Amazon reviews directly influence your book’s position in the rankings and lists. That has been proven untrue time and again. Amazon reviews only influence one thing: how readers perceive your book when they come across it. In other words, reviews aren’t really a factor of discoverability. They’re a factor of conversion. Bearing that in mind, what exactly is it about reviews that matters? Getting as many reviews as possible? Getting only positive reviews? Getting in-depth reviews? Reviews from famous people? Let’s put our reader hats on for a moment. When you come across a book on Amazon, what is it exactly that you look for in the reviews? Personally, I tend to look at: The number of reviews. The more reviews a book has, the more successful it appears. It’s a basic element of social validation, like likes on a Facebook post or YouTube video. Featured (top) reviews. Amazon ranks reviews based on when they were published (newer reviews get more prominence) and how many other readers upvoted them as “useful.” Generally, only the first 2-10 reviews will show up on the book’s page.  The issue of “top reviews” is one that’s too often overlooked. See, if all the 5-star reviews you get are just basic “loved this book,” “a great story,” “definite must-read” platitudes, then as soon as someone posts a sensible 2-star review with a couple of paragraphs, that review is likely to get more upvotes than all your 5-star reviews — which means that it will show up first on your book’s page. And if you don’t think that happens often, look at this book. Or this one. Or this one. They have hundreds of reviews, and yet most of the reviews showing up on the book page are 1- and 2-star ones.   Not all reviews are created equal All that to say: it’s not all about numbers. The quality of the review matters. One positive review that goes in-depth into why the reviewer liked your book is worth more than 100 positive reviews that consist of generic “loved it!” one-liners. This is not only because it’ll get more “helpful” upvotes and therefore show up first on Amazon, but because you’ll also be able to use an excerpt from it for your book description, or even ads. A well-written, meaningful, and positive review is an element of social validation that can greatly improve your conversion and turbocharge your ads. This is what the concept of Reedsy Discovery is all about: using meaningful reviews to help promote books to readers. So, how do you get such a review (short of, you know, submitting to Reedsy Discovery)? Well, we also keep a free and updated directory of book review bloggers, which is always a good place to start. If a reviewer has a blog, it means they’re serious about reviewing, and will probably write a review with more meat than your average reader. The downside is that most reviewers are already swamped under submissions, so you’ll need to make sure you reach out to them well in advance of your launch. That’s a wrap for our analysis of the conversion funnel as a whole! Again, I urge you to regularly do an audit of all of your books’ presence on Amazon, and consider whether you could improve the covers, the blurb, or the reviews. Small changes in the conversion funnel can translate into huge changes in your royalty statement! Until next week, Ricardo Connecting authors with the industry's best editors, designers, and book marketers. Learn more about our services Copyright © 2019 Reedsy Hi, there 👋 If you didn't hear already, last week was a big one at Reedsy HQ as we launched Reedsy Discovery. To help solve the age-old problem of getting enough visibility for your book launch, we've created this new marketing platform that allows indie authors to get the reviews and readers they need. But how can I get the most out of this platform? Well, I'm so glad you asked! For this week's Reedsy Live, I've invited Emmanuel and Matt to join us for an intimate Q&A. They're two of Reedsy's co-founders and the main brains behind Discovery. They're also ready to share their insider knowledge when it comes to attracting the right reviewers and readers when you submit your book to Reedsy Discovery. Register for free Come ready with your questions! You can ask them about Reedsy, Reedsy Discovery or any other topic you like — you can even ask Matt what it was like to design this site while living out of his Land Rover (which, ironically, is not a Discovery). See you there this Wednesday! Martin @ Reedsy Connecting authors with the industry's best editors, designers, and book marketers. Learn more about our services Copyright © 2019 Reedsy  It’s time authors sold more books Introducing Reedsy Discovery! Hey there 👋,  Emmanuel from Reedsy here. I've got some big news! The Reedsy team and I are pretty excited to announce the release of Reedsy Discovery, our new marketing platform for authors. Whoop whoop! We’ve been working hard on Discovery for over a year and we hope it will become an essential tool for any author looking to successfully launch their book. What is Reedsy Discovery? Reedsy Discovery will allow indie authors to gain exposure to an equally passionate community of book-lovers. You can expect to reach over 100 book reviewers and tens of thousands of readers with a simple click of the finger — and if that wasn’t exciting enough, any author who submits will also be eligible for a review of their book. How much will it cost? $50, not a penny more. No subscription, no cut on sales, nothing. Just a $50 fee for exposure to our community of readers and reviewers. How will Discovery enable me to reach readers? On the day of your launch, your book will be featured in our Discovery feed, where readers can upvote and comment on it. The most upvoted books of the week will make it into our weekly newsletter, sent out to tens of thousands of readers. Can really anyone submit? Yes, as long as you’re an indie author and in your launch period. We recommend you submit to Discovery weeks (or even months) before your official launch, though, as it’ll increase your chances of receiving a review. How do you best launch on Discovery? We created a Launch Guide that should come in handy. I’m a book reviewer — can I review books on Discovery? Yes, you can apply from this page. Ok, I’m ready for Discovery! Where is it? Right here: https://reedsy.com/discovery/submit I hope Discovery will help you launch your book successfully. If you’ve got any questions, my co-founders and I are doing an Ask Me Anything session on Product Hunt today. All the best, Emmanuel, CEO at Reedsy Launch Discovery . Hi, there 👋 Imagine spending countless solitary hours writing the perfect 80,000-word book, only to have someone come up to you and say, “Can you just sum it up for me in a couple of paragraphs?” Surely, that person would become the unfortunate victim of a dreadful murder in your next book. Or if you write non-fiction, their name might be used in a hypothetical account of a crushing social faux pas (a fate worse than death!). But the problem is, it’s not a person asking you to describe your book in less than a dozen sentences: it’s Amazon. And Kobo. And Apple. And, well, any place where you may hope to sell your book, really.   After the cover, the blurb Book descriptions, or blurbs, are the second most important element in the conversion funnel. If you don’t know what that is, read this. If a reader is sufficiently intrigued by your cover to click on your book — or pick it up from a shelf — what are they going to do next? Well, they'll read the blurb or back cover description. Their decision to either purchase the book or put it back on the shelf hangs on how much they enjoy this blurb and whether they want to find out more. The importance of these few short paragraphs is matched only by how damn hard they are to write!   Blurb do’s and don’ts Now, I don't profess to be an amazing copywriter. However, from my experience working with authors and running ads for them, I have a solid sense of the things that work (and don’t work) with book blurbs — and in particular with Amazon book descriptions.   Don’t: Write just one or two sentences thinking that will be enough to “sell” the book. Write more than 3-4 paragraphs (i.e. no more than 200 words). Give away your ending, or even your climax (for fiction). The blurb is not there to summarize your novel, it’s there to get people to read it! Mix in caps with bolding, italics, and header styles. It’s not an HTML competition. Stuff your blurb with keywords related to your genre. That doesn’t work anymore. Do: Use the first sentence (or two) to hook the reader. Use social validation (“a USA Today Bestseller”), a review, or a clever sentence with sensational language. Use HTML sparingly, e.g. bolding to highlight your hook; For non-fiction, explain who the book is for, so readers can immediately identify (“if you’ve recently made a bit of money and are thinking where to invest, this beginner’s guide to safe investing will set you on the right path.”) Use relevant keywords related to your genre as long as they make sense. For example, if you write a terrorism thriller, you might want to get “FBI”, “spy”, “bomb”, “terrorist”, etc. in there — if these elements actually feature in your book. Writing blurbs is generally harder for fiction than for non-fiction (where you can actually sum up the main message of your book). This is why we put together a comprehensive guide to writing a novel’s blurb on our blog last year.   Can I get someone else to do it for me? Blurb writing is one of these activities that I generally don’t recommend authors outsource: you’re writers, and no one knows your book better than you do. That said, copywriting is a different skill. If the idea of writing that book description is really too daunting — or if your book isn’t selling and you suspect your blurb might be a cause — then do consider hiring someone to (re)write it for you. Blurb changes, like cover re-designs, have proven remarkably successful at “resurrecting” dead books. Authors are often tempted to ask their editors to help them write the blurb. After all, your editor is probably the second person who knows your book best. But unless your editor has proven copywriting skills, I’d wager that they’re not the best person to write your blurb. Instead, I’d suggest you hire a marketer. Blurb writing is not so much about creative writing as it is about marketing. We have a few verified book marketers on Reedsy who specialize in blurb writing and Amazon metadata — you can find them here (though you’ll need to sign up/log in to actually reach out to them). Blurbs are also one of those wonderful things you can easily test with Facebook ads. Just run two identical ads for the same audience, each featuring a different version of your blurb, and see which one gets the highest click-through rate. After the cover and the blurb, the next step in the conversion funnel involves reviews. That’s what we’ll talk about in two weeks. Because next week, we have a huuuuuuge announcement coming, to which we’ll dedicate all newsletters.   Stay tuned, Ricardo Connecting authors with the industry's best editors, designers, and book marketers. Learn more about our services Copyright © 2019 Reedsy Hi, there 👋 By now, you should be pretty familiar with Kindle Direct Publishing, Amazon’s platform that lets self-publishing authors sell their ebooks at the world’s #1 digital store. However, I wouldn't blame you if you're not as familiar with KDP Select. Although it sounds like an exclusive club, KDP Select is actually a program that's available to all self-publishing authors. In exchange for selling your book exclusively with Amazon, you get a whole raft of promotional opportunities — one of which is access to the oft-misunderstood Kindle Unlimited. Over on the blog this week, we're taking a deep dive into KDP Select and asking the big question: should you sign up or avoid it like the proverbial plague? READ THE FULL POST If you've previously enrolled your books onto KDP Select, be sure to leave a message in the comments and share your experiences with me and your fellow authors! Until next time, enjoy this random treat: a hamster eating a tiny burrito! — Martin Connecting authors with the industry's best editors, designers, and book marketers. Learn more about our services Copyright © 2019 Reedsy Hi, there 👋 I’m starting this week’s email with an important addendum to last week’s newsletter on conversions and Amazon’s affiliate program. I had mentioned that you can keep track of two different marketing channels (e.g. Facebook ads and Bookbub ads) by using two separate Amazon Associates accounts. But an even better way to do this is to use the same Associates account and set up different tracking codes. Now that’s cleared up, let’s return to our dissection of the conversion funnel! This week, we’re going to (hint) cover one of its most important components. What’s the first thing readers will look at? You guessed it: your book cover. Whether readers come across your book on a Facebook ad, Amazon page, or Bookbub newsletter, the first thing they'll see is your book’s cover. It’s the very first step in the conversion funnel — and probably the most important as well. That’s not only because it’s likely going to inform a reader’s decision to actually click on your book, but because it will immediately set expectations. If I see a spaceship on a cover, I know it’s sci-fi — and that it probably has something to do with space opera, military, or exploration fiction. If I see a bare-chested man with a silhouette of an animal behind him, I know it’s a shapeshifter romance. If I see a young girl against a backdrop of a dark city, dressed in leather clothes with a ball of magic in her hand, I know it’s urban fantasy. This is one of the main reasons that covers actually exist. If you think about it, all books could have a blank cover with the title and author name on it. But no, covers have designs because these designs immediately inform readers about the nature of the book. So I’ll start with a simple tip: check out the bestselling books in your genre, see what the cover expectations are, and make sure your books follow them. This might seem like obvious advice at first, but it actually becomes more nuanced if you’ve been in the business for several years. Because guess what: cover trends change. If you have an important backlist that you want to keep alive (and popular), then you need to periodically make sure that its covers are up to date — and get them re-designed if they aren’t. Testing cover designs If you see that one of your books isn’t selling, and you suspect the cover might be a factor, then why not test a re-design? It’s as easy as: Commissioning a new cover design; Setting up two identical ads on Facebook: one with the original cover, the other with the new one; Targeting a close comp author in your genre; and Getting enough impressions on the ads and checking to see which image got the highest click-through-rate. This is something that we’ve tried to encourage more at Reedsy because, frankly, we don’t see a lot of authors doing it. In fact, we tested book cover designs (for free) for four indie authors last year, and all four new covers had a higher click-through-rate. Now, this test isn’t foolproof — you’re only testing the click-through-rate, not the conversion rate afterwards — but it should be enough to tell you which cover is most effective at attracting readers in your genre. Of course, if you already have a big mailing list of engaged readers, then you can simply ask them which cover they prefer. Keep in mind, though, that your existing readers will be biased. They’ll already be familiar with — and attached to — your brand. So it’s likely that their opinion is completely different from that of a unbiased group of readers (like those you’d reach through Facebook ads). It’s not just for your backlist… Now, you can test the cover of pretty much any book, even one that you haven’t published yet. If your designer sends you two different concepts, rather than trusting your gut instincts, spend $30 on Facebook ads and get some proper data validation. Your cover is going to be your single most important marketing tool, so don’t be afraid to spend a few extra bucks on ads to make sure you get it just right for your genre. If you’ve tried this idea in the past, or if you try it in the coming months, I’d love to hear about your results! I really do believe more authors should be doing this, and would also be happy to answer any questions that you might have about it. Until next week, Ricardo Connecting authors with the industry's best editors, designers, and book marketers. Learn more about our services Copyright © 2019 Reedsy