Want to hear my weird Virginian/Australian accent? Before The Bestseller audiobook out now 🙂 Listen here.

3 Secrets

1. How do you find event planners to offer copies of your book to for their next event: Eventex Directory – international list of event professionals. 10Times.com – searchable directory of event organizers by region & industry. Eventbrite Organizer Directory – scrape or search events and reverse-engineer organizers. Meetup.com – many Meetup group organizers run events locally and nationally. BizBash – top resource for finding large-scale corporate and cultural event planners. Social Tables / Cvent – software platforms used by event planners; some have public directories.
   
2. Beat the 0’s and the 5’s: Classic trick people have forgotten about when bidding on Amazon with their campaigns. Beat a majority of the competition on their bids by bidding odd numbers. For example, most people will bid 55¢ or $1.05 so instead bid 57¢ or $1.07. Obviously there’s more that goes into the winning bid than just the highest but at least this way it’ll be one more data point in your favor to get Amazon to show your ads.
   
3. 3 options: Nick Trenton, author of million-copies-sold Stop Overthinking, doesn’t do interviews. I know, I’ve tried to interview him! You know what he said to me? “I avoid interviews like the plague, as I’m sure you’ve noticed.” Nick was smart to say no to me—clearly, as it hasn’t stopped his book, Stop Overthinking, from being on its way to selling over a million copies, if it hasn’t already. You’re much more likely to commit to things you enjoy doing. You always have three options with marketing activities you don’t enjoy:
   
   
   1. Don’t choose it as one of your tools, focus on ones you enjoy and will stick withFind a way to enjoy it, like pulling snippets of your interviews instead of recording yourself talking into a cameraGet someone else to do it for you, VA’s!

2 Links

1. Most nervous I’ve been to guest on a podcast. Marketing legend John Jantsch had me on Duct Tape Marketing to talk about launching a book successfully. Listen here.
   
   Takeaways:
   
   
   
   • Publishers won’t market your book. Authors must take ownership of their book promotion strategy.
   
   
   • Think of your book like a product. If it’s good (and light, as Alex says), it needs only wind—your marketing—to take off.
   
   
   • Pick a sales goal. Whether it’s 1,000 or 20,000 copies, defining a target helps guide every marketing tactic.
   
   
   • Use free reader seeding. Get your book into the hands of people who can talk about it and create buzz.
   
   
   • Break down your sales goal into channels. Consider email, podcasts, Amazon ads, or lumpy mail to move copies strategically.
   
   
   • Your email list is gold. Start small with 100 engaged readers and build from there—this is traffic you own.
   
   
   • Use VA support for outreach. Outsourcing book promotion tasks helps you scale more efficiently.
   
   
   • Don’t overlook physical presence. Alex shares how one book sold millions after being spotted in a car wash!
   
   
   • Design a book funnel. Use your book as a lead magnet for higher-ticket services like courses or coaching.
   
   
   • Presentation matters. From soft t-shirts to custom editions, packaging your book with care can spark word-of-mouth and long-term publishing success.
2. Audiobook for Before The Bestseller 🙂

1 Quote

‘Beware; for I am fearless, and therefore powerful..’

– Mary Shelley, Frankenstein