Category: Interview

Julia Usher Interview: Bootstrapping Your Book Publicity & Marketing

I had the pleasure of speaking with Julia Usher about her efforts in promoting her books. She came to my attention via this INCREDIBLE presentation: Bootstrap Marketing: Building Your Own Multi-Faceted Media Tour.

In our interview, we dig in to how she promoted her first book, Cookie Swap, analyze what worked and what didn’t, and the changes to her marketing plan for her next book: Ultimate Cookies. What she has learned applies well beyond marketing books about cookies, HIGHLY RECOMMENDED for any author.

You can watch the full interview by clicking the play button below:

You can find Julia in the following places:

Thanks so much to Julia for taking the time to chat!
-Dan

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Jackson Pearce Interview – Connecting To Your Fans With Video

Today, Jackson Pearce gives us an inside look at the life of a writer, and how she balances writing her books and her social media outreach to fans. She writes YA fiction including her latest book called Sweetly. She does so much to connect with her fans, including:

  • A weekly live video chat from her living room where she chats with 70+ fans
  • Two videos per week that she posts on YouTube

With 200 videos posted and more than 100,000 channel views – Jackson really shares a lot of herself with the world. My favorite quote:

“If you are going to be an author, it seems silly to not support the books online and talk to your fans when we now have the outlet to do that.”

In this interview, we dig into the following topics:

  • How being active in social media has had a “profound” effect on her career, especially the videos.
  • How she balances writing her books and connecting with her fans.
  • That being an author is a “crap shoot,” but she pursues it because she trusts herself.
  • That it took 76 rejections before she got her agent.
  • Why “Self publishing is the diet pill of publishing.” That the promise doesn’t live up to reality for YA authors.
  • And many other topics!

You can watch the full interview by clicking the play button below:

You can find Jackson in the following places:

Thanks so much to Jackson for taking the time to chat!
-Dan

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Heather McCormack Interview – Each Book Needs To Be Nurtured

Today we get an inside look into the library world, and some smart views on the current state of ebooks and big publishers. I had the pleasure of speaking with Heather McCormack, Book Review Editor for Library Journal. My favorite quote from the conversation:

“Treat each book like a person, that has an identity and personality. Nurture it and make it as great as it can be.”

We cover the following topics:

  • That we are in the “wild west” of digital books – that many in publishing are unsure of what to do, and sheepish about experimenting. “It would be nice to see some courage.”
  • That the craft of creating a book is being lost in ebooks – few seem concerned about the nuances of creating a wonderful reading experience.
  • Why Amazon is moving quickly in the ebook/publishing space as publishers move slowly
  • Readers are desperately waiting for MORE ebooks, but business models are evolving slowly.
  • Key issues around ebooks and equal access to information for library communities.
  • How publishers are still working out their digital strategies – there is not a lot of flexibility in terms of how libraries can obtain ebooks in a timely manner and within their current budgets.
  • That “no one is in publishing for the money” – rather, they are invested in ideas.
  • How errors and typos are still prevalent in ebooks from both large and small publishers.
  • With Borders closing, the library is becoming one of the few places where people can browse for books.
  • “It’s all too easy to take libraries for granted.”
  • And many other topics!

You can watch the full interview by clicking the play button below:

[flowplayer src=’https://s3.amazonaws.com/WeGrowMediaInterviews/HeatherMcCormack.mov’ width=640 height=375]

You can find Heather in the following places:

Thanks so much to Heather for taking the time to chat!
-Dan

Barbara Vey Interview – Creating a Community Around a Blog

I had the pleasure of speaking with Barbara Vey, Contributing Editor at Publishers Weekly with her blog: Beyond Her Book. Barbara has built an amazing community around her blog, which focuses on women’s fiction. If you are wondering how you can create an engaging blog – one that really brings people together – you should hear Barbara’s story.

We cover the following topics:

  • How Barbara builds her audience and deepens her connection to them.
  • How she has brought others in to help create blog content.
  • How she got more than 22,000 blog comments in a single week.
  • The value of meeting people in-person, not just online.
  • And many other topics!

You can watch the full interview by clicking the play button below:

[flowplayer src=’https://s3.amazonaws.com/WeGrowMediaInterviews/BarbaraVey.mov’ width=640 height=375]

You can find Barbara in the following places:

Thanks so much to Barbara for taking the time to chat!
-Dan

Bob Mayer Interview – Selling 80,000 eBooks in One Month

I had the pleasure of speaking with author Bob Mayer, where we chatted about the specifics of his success in the ebook space.
We cover the following topics:

  • His experience of 20 years in traditional publishing, and why he is putting so many resources into ebooks.
  • The value of getting the rights back on nearly all of the 40 books he has published, allowing him to turn them into ebooks.
  • In January of this year, he sold 347 ebooks total (with 8 books for sale), grossing $5,000 across all platforms. In July, he sold more than 80,000 ebooks (with 32 books for sale), and had $90,000 in profit.
  • The importance of pricing: why only two of his books are priced at 99 cents, and the rest at higher prices. Nothing is above $4.99.
  • How he gets the word out about his books via blogs and forums.
  • That getting featured by pubit! increased sales from 12 copies a day to more than 400 per a day for one title. This is a book that had previously sold more than 1,000,000 copies in paperback.
  • The importance of focusing on each individual platform and format, and the incredible amount of work involved in that.
  • His view that profit sharing will be a bigger part of publishing in the future, instead of advances.
  • That every author needs to be an entrepreneur, spending at least 50% of their time on the business end of things.

You can watch the full interview by clicking the play button below:

You can find Bob in the following places:

Thanks so much to Bob for taking the time to chat!
-Dan

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