Photo by sebra / 123rf.com
Click here to listen on your device and subscribe!
Welcome to Season 3 of The Book Marketing Action Podcast with Becky Robinson, where we give you information that you can immediately implement to increase your influence and market your books more successfully.
This episode focuses on how fiction authors can identify their niche and use it to expand their reach. Becky is joined by Jody Sperling–Author and Host of The Reluctant Book Marketer Podcast–who shares his best advice for identifying your target audience, engaging with other fiction authors in your genre, growing a following, and building collaborative relationships with those followers.
Key Points From This Episode
[01:17] Jody shares about himself and his work in the world.
[03:18] Jody reveals what’s different for fiction writers when it comes to marketing their work.
[04:41] Are there similarities between fiction writing and real estate investing? Jody compares the two and elaborates on the idea of finding a niche.
[06:26] Jody explains how authors can apply lessons from real estate investing when trying to identify and solidify their niche.
[08:23] How can you find people who are writing in the same genre as you? Jody shares his strategy.
[09:40] Questions can be a powerful way to build collaborative relationships with other authors and their audiences. Jody explains this concept in more detail.
[11:16] Jody reveals the questions that he asks authors that compel them to form a deeper relationship with him.
[13:20] Jody discusses how much time he spends on Twitter trying to find authors to collaborate with and identify audiences for his work.
[14:37] Discover how a fiction author can identify and articulate who the people are who are in their niche.
[15:26] What if you don’t know what your genre is? Jody provides some guidance.
[16:01] Do hashtags matter? Jody explains why he doesn’t use them to find people in this niche.
[16:43] Jody shares his advice for utilizing TikTok to identify new audiences and authors.
[17:47] Learn how much time Jody invests in TikTok.
[18:42] Jody shares some final thoughts about the idea of collaborating with other authors to identify more readers in your niche.
[21:44] Jody reveals other ways he is targeting his efforts to attract the right authors and audiences.
Action Steps:
- Create three powerful questions that you would ask an authority in your space. Use those questions to start connecting with people and defining your niche.
- Ask those same questions to the community you have built already. Make yourself available for the next 15 minutes to engage with anybody who answers your questions.
Resources:
- Check out Jody’s podcast, The Reluctant Book Marketer, and listen to his recent episode with Becky!
- Follow Jody on LinkedIn, Twitter, and Instagram, and join his Facebook group.
Tweetables and quotes:
If you choose to share on Twitter, don’t forget to tag @beckyrbnsn and @jodyjsperling so they know you enjoyed this episode!
The novel speaks for itself. The novel is the object that you want people to buy. —Jody Sperling
I go into Twitter and I look for people who have publishing deals that are still a year away and are announcing that they have a forthcoming novel. I build a relationship with those people that are writing in the same genre as I am. —Jody Sperling
Almost everybody gravitates towards Twitter. It is just a really great social media platform for fiction. —Jody Sperling
Once you build relationships with authors, you need to be careful not to rely on authors as your customers. —Jody Sperling
Twitter is a powerful place where you can meet other authors in your similar genre, engage with them, and collaborate–not so that the other authors are your customer, but so that you can get to know other readers as a result of the engagement that’s happening. —Becky Robinson
If you found value in today’s episode, we hope you’ll take a moment to share it with someone else who might benefit from it. If you have any questions or topics you’d like us to cover, please email Becky Robinson here.
Click here for our free resources.
Register for one of the “Reach More Readers” workshops.
If you enjoyed this episode, please leave us a review.
Click here to tweet about this episode!
I am the founder/CEO of the Weaving Influence team, the author of Reach: Creating the Biggest Possible Audience for Your Message, Book, or Cause, and the host of the Book Marketing Action Podcast. I’m a wife and mom of three kids, and I enjoy running, reading, writing, coffee, and dark chocolate.