If you missed Free Advice Friday last week, you can watch the replay on our YouTube channel, youtube.com/NewShelvesBooks.
March 18, 2022 Free Advice Friday Hot Topics
What microphone does Keri use for webinars?
- Her go-to is a USB input microphone—Blue Snowball. This microphone can be found on Amazon for under $50.
- Audio-Technica is another great microphone brand (recommend by Derek Doepker, creator of Audiobooks Made Easy). You can grab the Audio-Technica ATR2100x on Amazon for under $100.
- f you’re looking for a high end microphone, you might consider the Shure SM7B. However, at $400 this microphone is quite the investment and likely not worth the cost for the average author doing interviews here and there.
Good News: There’s a new podcast looking to book authors for interviews. For more information on the “Authors Over 50” podcast, reach out to Julia Brewer Daily at juliadaily.com.
Have you seen your sales drop recently? Keri noticed a decrease in many of her clients’ sales and their social media engagements. After researching and paying close attention to when sales and engagement dipper, she realized there were some commonalities. Many of the dips began on February 24th – the same day Russia invaded Ukraine and the week gas prices spiked.
When significant events happen, like Russian invading Ukraine or big fluctuations in the Covid pandemic, consumers become distracted. They tend to pay less attention to social media not focused on the news event and purchase fewer non-necessity items. Trends like this tend to even out as the news stories either slow down or become more common place.
What is an easy-to-use recording program for audiobooks? Audacity is excellent and free: https://www.audacityteam.org/. You may also want to check out Simple Cast: https://simplecast.com/.
Big Disrupters: On March 14th—this past Monday— Amazon announced it would allow traditionally published authors to run ads.
Today’s reality is that Traditionally published authors are expected to promote their books. Amazon is a huge retailer, and the market is growing. Adding more players changes the dynamics because more people advertising means more competition. Read more about this new update here: https://newshelves.com/amazon-opens-ads-to-traditionally-published-authors/.
Does Overdrive take a cut when libraries use Draft2Digital? Yes, they take a percentage. You can find for information on the cost involved here: https://www.draft2digital.com/#cost.
What should you be doing if your launch date is two weeks away?
- Check your files! Make sure your sales page is up to date and ready to go.
- Update your website and social media accounts to reflect your new book – be sure to include buy links.
- Get your ARC to your review team. They will take a week or two to read your book. Make sure you allow them that time so you can request they post reviews on your launch day.
- Up your social media posting and engagement. The more engagement you get on a post, the more people will see your next post. So, when you launch, you want to post often and work hard on engagement to get the maximum number of eyes on your launch posts.
- As soon as your book is up for sale or pre-sale, put the link in your posts so it’s easy for those who see your posts to buy your book.
Should I publish a paperback on Ingram Spark? Yes, we do recommend you use both KDP and Ingram Spark for a well-rounded distribution plan. This blog explain this recommendation in detail. https://newshelves.com/why-you-need-both-ingramspark-and-kdp/
When you post non-book-related content on social media, should you put book hashtags in the post? Only post hashtags relevant to the specific post. The purpose of the non-book-related post is to draw a broader audience to your platform, so don’t be afraid to use non-book hashtags where appropriate.
How do I find which hashtags to post? Check our the new hashtag generator for Kindlepreneur. https://kindlepreneur.com/hashtags-for-writers/
Note: This program is a great place to start your hashtag research, but Kindlepreneur does not check for trending hashtags. You’ll need to do trending hashtag research the old-fashioned way – get on the social media platform and start browsing.
You can now schedule FB and IG posts in the Meta Business Suite. The Meta Business Suite isn’t exactly intuitive, but it does have some great tools for scheduling posts on both Facebook and Instagram and it’s free.
If you have questions you’d like answered, join us next week, Friday, March 25th at 10am EST to get your questions answered LIVE or e-mail your questions in advance to info@newshelves.com with “FREE ADVICE FRIDAYS” in the subject line.
