3 | Book marketing secrets
1. When working with international virtual assistants
Don’t rely on only having an email address on file; have a physical address and phone number on file as well.
Make sure to get a scanned copy of the passport of anyone who works for you. God forbid anything goes wrong, you’ll have something legitimate to work from and share with authorities if needed.
IF you need to let someone go, first move them into a less risky position while removing access to passwords and anything else that could lead to real harm in your world. Then, if they still aren’t performing in that lower-risk position, you won’t lose as much sleep parting ways.
2. This question gets people honest real quick.
“WHEN I reach out to [insert name of previous employer], how will they rate you on a scale of 1-10 and why?”
The reason this question works so well is that it makes candidates realize you’re going to be asking their last boss to confirm whatever answer they give you anyway.
It forces people to get real honest, real quick.
I’ve literally had candidates tell me their boss wouldn’t give them a high score because they didn’t really work that hard.
NEXT!
3. 5 ways any author can use their AI team-member today to help with their marketing.
Chase the reviews you were promised. Claude finds everyone who asked for an ARC, got a free copy, or said “can’t wait to read it.” It checks who still hasn’t posted a review and writes each of them a short personal nudge with the direct review link. A launch with 40 ARCs out often has 25 people who meant to review and forgot.
Turn reader replies into a superfan list. Claude searches for readers who have replied to your newsletter or emailed you about the book more than once. It ranks them by how engaged they are and invites the top ones to your launch team or street team for the next book. These people already love you, and nobody ever asked them.
Pull testimonials and content ideas out of your fan mail. Claude goes through every reader email and finds the strongest praise to use as blurbs on your Amazon page, website and ads. It writes a quick email asking each person if you can quote them. It also gathers the questions readers keep asking, which become newsletter topics, FAQ answers or chapters in the next book.
Revive cold media and podcast threads. Claude finds every conversation with a podcast host, blogger, journalist or event organizer that ended without a booking (“let’s circle back after the holidays…”). It drafts a follow-up for each one that mentions where the last thread stopped and adds a new hook, like a new release or a timely angle.
Map your author network for cross-promotion. Claude finds every fellow author you’ve emailed with and lists their genre and when you last talked. It flags the people worth asking for a newsletter swap, a blurb, a bundle or a joint promo, then drafts the ask. Most authors have 20+ peers sitting in their inbox they’ve never asked for anything.
