Novel Marketing

David Gaughran, author and digital advertising veteran who wrote Let's Get Digital, shares practical rules for profitable book ads. He covers why fundamentals beat flashy dashboards. He explains starting small, using promos and series, building a reader magnet and email list, and testing landing pages versus direct-to-retailer approaches. He also compares fiction and nonfiction ad strategies.

A reflective celebration that counts five hundred shows and a big giveaway. The storyteller revisits platform collapses like Google+ and shifting Facebook rules. He confesses long-held bad advice—from podcast mic picks to trusting free social networks. There are lessons on mailing tools, blogging for novelists, marketing personas, and a candid turn toward health and team gratitude.

Eiri Theodorou, founder of Publisher Champ and creator of an analytics platform for authors. They dig into why sales are not the same as profit. Learn about misleading Amazon metrics, how one bestseller can hide catalog losses, and tracking ads, direct sales, and real-world marketing in a single dashboard.

Seth Ring, fantasy and LitRPG author who has sold over a million books, chats about a sweeping shift in storytelling toward aspirational, hope-centered heroes. They talk about why readers crave earned victories, clear moral stakes, communal rebuilding and creation stories. The conversation highlights a move from grimdark cynicism to narratives that inspire constructive action.

I bought and tested Apple's cheapest laptop so you don't have to.I stress-tested the MacBook Neo with a 250,000-word document, ran every major writing app, and pushed the machine to its limits. Whether the Neo is right for you depends on what you use your computer to do, because authors do more than just type words into a word processor.In this week's episode of Novel Marketing, you’ll learnWhat you should look for (and ignore) when buying a laptop in 2026Which laptops I recommend for authors, podcasters, and PC usersWhether the MacBook Neo is the right choice for you as an authorWhich laptop I will not recommend in 2026Listen in or read the blog version to find out which machine is the best bang for your buck and your use cases as an author.Support the show

Your author friends are lying to you about your book cover.Well, not on purpose. They can’t help it.When authors are trying to pick a book cover, they often ask their friends which cover they like best. But that strategy doesn’t work because your friends look too closely. They think about your feelings. They vote based on which cover has more votes.But your cover isn’t for your friends.It’s for strangers.In this week’s episode, we unpack why beautiful covers, which are loved by your friends, fail to help your book sell. You’ll hear how one author made his losing ads profitable without rewriting a single word of his book.In this week’s episode you’ll learnWhat makes a cover “good”How you can get accurate data on what will make readers click to buyHow much you’ll need to spend to get a cover that sellsIf your ads aren’t working, it may be time to examine the elements of your cover. Listen in or read the blog version to find out how.  Support the show

Many authors say reader magnets don’t work anymore. But when done right, a good reader magnet can grow your email list from zero to thousands of subscribers before your first book even launches.In this episode, you’ll hear from author, podcaster, and producer of the Novel Marketing podcast, Laurie Christine, who built an email list of thousands using various reader magnet strategies, all while writing for Christian moms and middle-grade boys.You’ll discover:How many reader magnets you actually needThe surprising promotion strategy that yielded more than 500 solid subscribersHow to create reader magnets that attract buyers, not just freebie seekersA tool to help you discover which reader magnets may work for youYou’ll also learn how you can use reader magnets to refine your message, craft, and audience before publishing your first book.Listen in or read the blog version to learn techniques for building (or growing) an email list regardless of where you are in your writing journey.Support the show

A walkthrough of dozens of practical author tools for editing, promotion, worldbuilding, and business planning. Demos include PR helpers, influencer and event finders, and AI-powered contract, tax, and editorial assistants. You’ll hear tools for splitting long manuscripts, building compendiums and maps, podcast-to-blog conversion, audiobook pronunciation guides, lesson plans, and royalty analysis.

Joanna Penn, bestselling indie author, podcaster, and entrepreneur, talks about turning writing into a sustainable business. She covers when to think like a professional, building a focused author brand and series strategy, using Kickstarter smartly, and how AI can handle business tasks so you can write more.

Dave Chesson, creator of Kindlepreneur and Publisher Rocket, is an author and book-marketing expert. He explains how metadata drives discoverability on Amazon. Short sentences cover where metadata lives, why ISBNs and KDP fields matter, and how categories, keywords, covers, and descriptions must align. Practical tactics for finding niches, using subcategories, and iterating metadata are highlighted.