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The Smarty Pants Book Marketing Podcast

Award-winning marketer Chris Syme and bestselling indie author Becca Syme give self-published authors the latest social media tips and strategies that sell more books and build loyal fans. Join them as they interview top book marketing experts, showcase successful indie authors, and offer tips from their own successes on this weekly show.
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Now displaying: August, 2016
Aug 27, 2016

Show Notes:

 

In this week’s episode, Chris and Becca discuss how to run “spike campaigns” to sell books for goals that aren’t necessarily a book launch.

 

Using a published case study from thriller author J.F. Penn, the hosts discuss:

  • What is ad stacking and when it works and doesn’t work
  • How to know if a another author’s case study can work for you
  • What goals work best with ad stacking
  • Why an author would want to hit a bestseller list—what are the benefits besides selling books.
  • Why books on Kindle Unlimited (KDP Select) cannot make the USA Today or NY Times bestseller lists.
  • Penn’s top three tips when starting a spike campaign
  • Who should and should not “try this at home.”

 

This week’s links:

 

Aug 15, 2016

Guest co-host and fellow Chick Tales author K.C. Klein joins Becca on this wrap up of the summer conferences. Don't miss K.C.'s take on Comic-Con.

Show Notes:

Here are link's from today's episode:

 

SMART Social Media Classes: https://cksyme.com/services

 
RWA Conference Recordings: https://www.rwa.org/p/cm/ld/fid=1343&source=5 
 
Deep Work by Cal Newport: http://amzn.to/2b5YFoK
 
Son of Zornhttp://www.fox.com/watch/697964099979/7807911168
 
Sticky Newsletters: http://www.margielawson.com/lawson-writers-academy-courses/detail/2-writing/287-oct-2016-sticky-newsletters
 
Get More Engagement With Less Social Media: https://cksyme.com/4-steps-get-social-media-engagement-less-channels/
 
Join our SMART Social Media FB Group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/smartsocialmediaforauthors/
Aug 8, 2016

In this episode, Chris visits with Stephen Campbell, book marketing strategist at theauthorbiz.com. Don't forget to take a look at the show notes to get a preview of their interview along with all the links from the episode.

Show Notes:

In today's episode:

  • How do advances in technology help and hurt indie publishers. Yes, there's a dark side, but the bright side is more powerful. 
  • What marketing skill do indie authors need to develop the most.
  • Learn what a "vintage person" is. You might be one.
  • Chris and Stephen discuss the new Universal Book Links (UBL) from Draft2Digital. Is there a downside?
  • Why Stephen thinks that every author may not need advanced business skills.
  • The love/hate relationship authors have with Amazon from a marketing point of view.
  • Stephen's two smarty pants book marketing tips for all authors.
  • You can find Stephen here:
  • Info on Chris' two discounted online classes: The Summer Blowout Sale

We hope you'll help us out by leaving a review of our podcast on iTunes or Stitcher. 

Aug 1, 2016

In this episode, Chris and Becca finish the five essential steps in setting up a successful email system. Here are the five essentials. In last week's podcast they covered number one.

  1. Questions you need to answer before you start.
  2. Choosing the right email service provider
  3. Setting up an enticing lead magnet
  4. Putting together a simple sign-up form
  5. Build an auto responder sequence designed to boost engagement and upsell books

This episode also comes with a free cheat sheet. It has a bunch of supplemental material from the broadcast including a graphic on setting up your auto responder funnel. 

Click to download your episode cheat sheet here.

Show Notes: 

-Correction: In the podcast we said that Mail Chimp is free to 2500 subscribers. It is actually free to 2000 subscribers. Sorry 'bout that.

-We recommend BookFunnel as a service to host all your free books. They have an easy user interface and provide your fans with your free books in all formats. This is not an affiliate link: http://bookfunnel.com/

- SMART Marketing for Authors is having a summer blowout sale on the two most popular online marketing classes for authors. Check it out here: https://cksyme.com/summersale. Discounts good until Aug 12.

-Be sure and go to https://cksyme.com/episode11 and answer the question of the week in the comments: What frustrates or challenges you the most about your email marketing? We'll tackle the answers to your questions in the next podcast!

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