And the ANSWER is … It’s the Marketing, Stupid …
Frankie Valli’s Oh What a Night came ran through my mind in October as I completed one of my radio shows for Author U-Your Guide to Book Publishing and headed out of the office for dinner and a check-in with one of my favorite TV shows that evening. My guest was Aliza Sherman, co-author of Social Media Engagement for Dummies.
Listenership had been steadily building this past year for the show … in fact they have been building since the show birthed in January of 2012. So much so, that I was now following the number of downloads on a weekly basis—after all, it does make sense to have a measurement to what one does, yes? OK, I admit it, sometimes I would check in several times a week.
It was a fun and enlightening show—definitely, I will have Aliza back again. As I always do, I created seven to ten Tweets with hashtags relevant to the topic after the show and sent a thank you letter to my guest along with the Tweets, encouraging her to shout them out to her followers; scheduled Tweets over the next 48 hours on my Hootsuite account and then sent the list to my VA to take over and post randomly over the next few months; wrote up a description on the inside dashboard of the station of the show and key points; and activated “publish” so that those who didn’t hear the show live could now download it—either from the show page or from the AuthorU.org or TheBookShepherd.com websites. And then I checked my numbers for the month—October.
Holy Smoly … Oh What a Night … over 90,000 downloads so far for the month.
With just a handful of listeners when I began, by the end of that first January, a grand total of 1,200 found the show. The next month,1,800 and by the third, 3,500. Listenership continued to grow, plateaued, and then picked up again. By the end of the year, 18,000 were listening monthly. The following year, numbers were up just a little and toward the end of 2013, we saw another jump. In 2014, the first part of the year saw 25,000 to 30,000 and then steadily, numbers started to jump. Over 90,000 downloads in October alone. November will pass 100,000 … 100,000 individuals downloading ideas and how-tos to propel them forward with author and book success!
What’s the message I’m giving you … saying to you?
1 It’s the marketing, stupid … for you and your book’s success—the variation of the Clinton—it’s the economy, stupid—tagline decades ago. Bring it back to what matters, what counts. The reason why that show has grown is the marketing—thank you Twitter—and my plan on how to push it. The marketing cost? Peanuts … really, peanuts
2 This is a marathon, not a sprint. I never expected to see instant results and a roaring success. If you get caught up in the instant success/recognition/gazillions of book sales … trust me, that’s your ego pulling the strings, not reality.
3 AuthorU.org is here to assist you in your marathon. There are numerous programs to take advantage of—many free to members, some for fee. You have to show up and participate to tap into them.
If you aren’t listening in live, we make it easy for you. All you need to do is go to the AuthorU.org 
page, click on this icon … and select what show topic you are interested. Within one minute, you will be deep into it.
In other words … Participate … Participate … Participate. Yes, I know this marathon is an overwhelm at times. You are going to have to get over it. You and your book’s success is not the 80/20 Rule … it’s the 90/10 Rule—10 percent is the writing … 90 percent is the marketing.
Judith Briles is known as The Book Shepherd a book publishing expert and coach. She is the Founder of Author U, a membership organization created for the serious author who wants to be seriously successful. She’s been writing about and conducting workshops on publishing since the 80s. Judith is the author of 31 books including Author YOU: Creating and Building Your Author and Book Platforms (ForeWord Indie/Fab Book of the Year), Snappy Sassy Salty: Wise Words for Authors and Writers and a speaker at publishing conferences.
Become part of her inner circle by joining the Author’s Ark and exclusive monthly webinar and coaching event. Each summer, she holds Judith Briles Unplugged, a two and 1/2 day intensive limited to a small group of authors who want to be seriously successful. In 2015, the dates are August 27-29th. Her audio and workbook series, Creating Your Book and Author Platform is now available. Join Judith live on Thursdays at 6 p.m. EST for Author U – Your Guide to Book Publishing on the Toginet Network at http://tinyurl.com/AuthorURadio . Follow @AuthorU and @MyBookShepherd on Twitter and do a “Like” at AuthorU and Judith Briles – TheBookShepherd on Facebook. If you want to create a book that has no regrets, contact Judith at Judith@Briles.com.
If you are looking for FREE author and book coaching … call in to Judith’s Author Monday Mornings at NOON Eastern each Monday. The number is 218-632-9854; Access Code 1239874444 … have your questions ready–there’s a full hour to ask and listen.
Was this helpful? Get more FREE tips and insight:
