For so many reasons besides that belittling criticism I received, I could never get past the first 30 to 50 pages of more than a dozen novels I began and then abandoned in the following decades. It was all too easy to lay the self-doubt aside and settle for a day job that was less challenging and less fulfilling than the calling I could never put behind me. 

When my husband and I moved to Spain in 2019, I intended to take one more run at writing fiction part-time while teaching English. Then, during Covid lockdown in 2020, I tricked myself into short daily writing sessions that were sometimes frustrating but still better than the boredom of sitting stuck in an apartment with nothing better to do. A novel emerged—at last I had found a way to quiet (if not silence) the inner critic and proved to myself that I could do it. 

I began querying that novel in 2022, and all the advice-givers on YouTube agreed a newsletter is a great way to build an author platform. For new writers today, I would emphasize starting one as soon as you first begin drafting your novel, preferably sooner. While the cold-querying process to agents still produces success stories, the ability to engage with readers and show that you are already a robust citizen of the literary world is an increasingly important selling point that novices ignore at their peril.  

Unfortunately, I also came late to the newsletter and author platform game and didn’t yet have that crucial piece in my querying package. Despite a few full manuscript requests, all my queries were declined; that I managed not to take those 60 rejections personally was a testament to how far I’d come from that crushing earlier experience. While I let those No’s marinate, I embarked on a newsletter platform I’d heard about in a writing workshop: Substack. 

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Never mind monetizing—a secondary consideration for a fiction writer trying to connect with readers—the real magic of Substack is in the relationships you build with like-minded hopefuls, many of them also just starting out and looking to build a rapport with someone, anyone, who shares their dream of joining the community of people playing with words. I call it a writer incubator, even though there are more experienced writers and recognized names on the platform all the time, either courted by Substack or just finding their way through attrition from traditional media. 

Whether it’s finance, civil rights, or news, popular media, erotica, or New Age meditations, there’s a niche for everyone—and by all accounts, deciding on a niche is the first task at hand when you are initially choosing categories for yourself. I picked Fiction and Literature, but for the first 11 months I published no fiction. I was testing the waters. I busied myself with thought salads, book reviews, and stories of my life—clearing my throat while I figured out what I was really doing. 

Six months into posting on Substack, the self-imposed weekly deadline did wonders for my motivation, my subscribers increased five-fold, and feedback that was supportive rather than hypercritical helped repair my confidence further. I began to form connections with other writers, including several who were testing out serializing novels. I saw how non-traditional narratives presented in episodes resonated with readers, that the process of writing and reading fiction in digestible bites could be as satisfying as sitting down to the five-course meal of a book in hand. 

Eager to begin a new novel, I decided on a different approach—drafting and publishing each chapter as I went along. Lamb: A novel in snapshots is experimental and non-linear, interlocking stories with the same characters tracing an arc from high school days to the mysterious disappearance and untimely death of the title character. The story unfolds years later when his best friend, the unnamed narrator D, reminisces about their life together in the 80s and 90s while sorting through journal entries, poetry, and short stories left behind by Lamb, a sensitive, misunderstood soul and frustrated writer. 

The main advantage of this method (rather than finishing the novel before posting) was that I could post episodes of the story in real time, without much fear that developments later would necessitate seismic shifts in the earlier chapters. Drafting my first novel had been a process of iterations, blind alleys, and revisions; it had also taken two years.  

Another advantage, besides a deadline, was the need to frame each episode as its own engaging scene with a satisfying conclusion that still left the reader wanting more. Writers serializing on Substack often find their individual chapters are tighter and more suspenseful within the constraints of the format. 

The main disadvantage of serializing? Perhaps the perception that a novel self-published on Substack is disqualified from agent representation or a traditional publishing contract. I was interested in giving self-publishing a shot, and serializing it first seemed the perfect way to build an audience who might also be interested in buying or at least telling others about the book version later. 

Of course, there are still opportunities to publish traditionally even after self-publishing, Andy Weir and The Martian being just one wildly successful example. At least two memoirs (Kimberly Warner’s Unfixed and Mary L. Tabor’s Who By Fire) and a novel (Eleanor Anstruther’s Fallout) first serialized on Substack have been offered publishing contracts by Alisa Kennedy Jones’s new women-centered imprint, Empress Editions.  

The brilliance of Substack as a platform is not just the readers you find, but the relationships you’ll form with writers at all levels of the game. Eleanor, who’s now been both traditionally and self-published (she is leading the charge for a rebrand to “independent” publishing as an increasingly worthwhile path in the evolving marketplace), is a generous, prolific Substacker who also provided me a blurb for Lamb. 

There are a few caveats to just firing up a new Substack and starting to post chapters. Build up an audience of consistent readers first, who can be depended upon to Like and Comment on each new installment. Provide clear signposts along the way, with a separate introduction and table of contents pinned to a special section for your novel, and in-post links to previous and subsequent chapters. Know that most readers on Substack are unfailingly kind, and their positive comments should not take the place of beta readers and honest, constructive criticism. Expect that some readers will fall away in the course of the serial—rather than be disappointed, consider that these might be the very people who would prefer to read your story in book form; use it as motivation to set a swift deadline to bring it to market. 

As I’m turning the corner with the book I started on Substack, now released into the wild, the experience of building my platform there is sending ripples out into the wider literary landscape. While it’s not a magic pill, the doors it can open are proliferating for the new writer hoping to be welcomed into a fellowship of mutual support. 

The post How Substack Helped Me Publish My Novel at 55 appeared first on Writer's Digest.

(3 Ways to Fall in Love With Book Marketing.)

I’m 60 years old with zero coding experience, but I stumbled onto a technological solution that’s been working well for me. Instead of me pitching my books, one of my fictional characters does it—naturally, authentically, and with a personality that keeps readers engaged.

Here’s how it happened, why it works, and how any author can set this up in a weekend.

The $100 Wake-Up Call

Like most authors, I’ve always been intimidated by website technology. When someone quoted me $100 to change an image on my site, I had a realization: If I can write a book, I’m smart enough to change an image in Squarespace. (Also, I’m cheap.)

Two weeks later, with the help of ChatGPT, I had completely rebuilt my website from scratch. I no longer owned a basic domain—I created a state-of-the-art platform. It was now engineered for AI search discovery, complete with schema, code injections, and widgets for social media and book reviews. The project cost me nothing, versus the $5,000 I would have spent to hire it out. And honestly? The learning curve wasn’t as steep as you might expect.

But the real breakthrough wasn’t technical—it was creative.

Enter Uncle Gunny

Thomas “Uncle Gunny” Barnett is the gruff, no-nonsense military-veteran sidekick from my thriller series. He’s got a razor-sharp wit and zero patience for small talk. In my books, he’s the character with the most distinctive voice.

So I put him to work.

Now, when visitors land on my website, they can chat directly with Gunny. They ask about my books, and he responds in perfect character—complete with his signature one-liners and military-style directness. I still have traditional FAQ and “About the Author” pages, but Gunny has become the more popular way for visitors to get information—especially for people who haven’t read the books yet. Instead of scanning static content, they get to interact with someone from the fictional universe itself.

Here’s what I mean. When a visitor asks “What do you do around here?” Gunny responds: “I keep the peace, buttercup. Answer questions about Emma Noble and the books. Make sure you don’t get lost. And I get cigars if you subscribe to the newsletter. Keeps me busy.”

How This Idea Evolved (And Why It Works)

Let’s just say I have a ‘curiosity’ problem. I was researching what I needed to include on my website to be more discoverable by AI search engines. Apparently, a virtual assistant helps with that. But what’s the point of having a generic AI bot on an author’s website when you’ve only written two novels? That’s when I realized the perfect virtual assistant was already sitting in the pages of my own book: Uncle Gunny could handle the job with personality to spare.

When he recommends my newsletter, it doesn’t feel like marketing. It feels like advice from a friend—albeit a friend who doesn’t sugarcoat anything and calls you “buttercup.”

This approach seems to solve three fundamental author marketing problems:

The authenticity problem: Instead of me awkwardly promoting my own work, a character does it naturally as part of their personality.

The engagement problem: Readers can ask follow-up questions, explore character backstories, and dive deeper into the fictional world between books.

The soft-sell problem: Newsletter signups and book recommendations flow organically from conversations about the stories and characters.

It’s still early days but the feedback has been great. It’s improved the bounce rate on my site. People are sticking around a little longer than they used to, engaging with the character and exploring the fictional world I created…without spoilers.

Something Authors Already Have

Here’s what I’m starting to realize. Every author faces the same marketing challenges, and I’m not saying this solves all of them by any stretch—but it might be a step in the right direction. Our characters already have personalities that engage readers. They have distinctive voices and relationships that drive our stories forward. I’m seeing that readers enjoy tapping into their perspective and voice.

If that’s working…why not give them more?

In a world where AI is transforming every industry, authors might actually have a unique advantage. We’ve already built the fictional personalities that readers love. We’ve already done the hard part of creating compelling people.

Now we’ve got the technology to let them speak directly to our readers.

The Technology (Simpler Than You Think)

It takes a little work. But I promise, you don’t need to be tech-savvy to pull this off. I used ChatGPT as my coding assistant throughout the entire process. Whether I needed help writing character prompts, setting up boundaries, or figuring out how to integrate the chatbot into my website, ChatGPT walked me through every step. It’s like having a patient, knowledgeable friend who never gets frustrated when you ask the same question three different ways.

For hosting the character chatbot, I used a platform called Chatbase. It handles all the technical backend while providing a simple embed code that drops into my website—no coding required, just copy, paste, and customize the appearance. There’s also a playground feature where you can test your character before going live.

Total monthly cost: $40. Setup time: It took less than an afternoon.

Getting Started: A Practical Roadmap

Choose Your Character: You might consider choosing someone with a distinctive voice who could realistically serve as a “guide” to your work. I didn’t choose my protagonist because she’s too important to the series. Uncle Gunny was up to the task.

Define Their Role: Give them a comprehensive job description. Gunny serves as tour guide through my fictional world, book recommender, and newsletter host all rolled into one. The key is being clear about what they should and shouldn’t do within those roles. Your character’s role can always evolve as you get more comfortable with their performance.

Gather Source Material: Compile character descriptions, dialogue samples, and personality quirks. The more specific you are, the better the AI will capture their voice. Let them train on all the information on your website and the reviews of your work on Goodreads and Amazon—this gives the character context about how readers actually respond to your books.

Start Simple: Begin with basic Q&A about your work and characters. You can type in questions that you think visitors will ask frequently and tell your character exactly how to respond. Not only will this help you control the message, the AI learns from your style. You also have a choice to allow it creative freedom on a scale of 0-10. I chose 8. When the training was dialed in, it was good to go. Gunny is constantly surprising me.

Test Extensively: This step is crucial. Chat with your character from different angles. Make sure they stay in voice and handle unexpected questions gracefully. Ask them inappropriate and offensive questions. Really put them through the paces—you want to discover any boundary issues before your website visitors do.

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What’s Next?

Who knows? It’s all coming at us so quickly. Every week, it feels like we need to recalibrate what is now possible in the AI space. So, we’re confronted with an uncomfortable choice. Do we hide in the basement and hope this tornado of technology passes us by? Or do we find interesting ways to use it? Personally, I’m leaning into it, trying to figure out how I can make it work for me.

But I should be clear. There are boundaries. I will always be a writer of original fiction. I’m not an author that wants AI to auto-tune my distinctive voice. By its nature, AI is derivative—a cover band. I don’t know if it will ever be able to craft original, human emotion—but creatively, the question doesn’t interest me.

With Uncle Gunny, though? I’ve found a way that AI can serve both my readers and my marketing needs. And the best part? He’s doing all the heavy lifting.

Are you ready to put one of your characters to work? Who’s your Uncle Gunny?

Ready to meet Uncle Gunny yourself? Visit https://www.andrewbridgeman.com/ask-uncle-gunny and see character-driven marketing in action. Just don’t expect him to be overly polite about it.

The post How I Turned My Gruff, No-Nonsense Character Into My Best Marketing Tool (And How Any Author Can Do the Same—No Coding Required) appeared first on Writer's Digest.

(5 Different Types of Podcasts for Writers to Try.)

It develops naturally over time as listeners hear candid stories, recognize familiar habits, and spend hours immersed in the host’s voice and worldview. A parasocial bond can feel like genuine friendship. Listeners might think of their favorite podcaster during their daily routines, turn to episodes for comfort during hard times, or celebrate milestones alongside them. Podcasters are building thriving communities and sustainable businesses by cultivating strong parasocial ties. Their audiences do more than just listen. They buy merch, interact online, attend the live shows, and share the podcast with others. Fostering that kind of emotional connection isn’t magic, it’s strategy.

How do you build that kind of bond with your listeners? I think it comes down to a blend of trust, excitement, and connection—three emotional pillars that keep people coming back and telling their friends about you.

Building Trust

Trust is the foundation of any strong relationship, parasocial or otherwise. For podcasters, it’s not just about being honest (although that helps). It’s about showing up consistently, delivering on promises, and letting listeners feel like they know the real you. These are a few key ways to build that foundation of trust.

Authentic Voice & Personality

Listeners can spot a phony a mile away. The best podcasters develop a hosting style that feels natural and unmistakably them. That means leaning into your quirks, your humor, your rhythms, and not trying to sound like someone else. Personal anecdotes, casual asides, and moments of genuine reaction all help build rapport. Dax Shepard’s Armchair Expert shines here; his laid-back, self-deprecating style is a huge part of why listeners feel so comfortable with him.

Vulnerable Storytelling

Sharing personal highs and lows can be scary, but it’s one of the fastest ways to build real credibility with your audience. When hosts are willing to open up about creative struggles, life lessons, or funny mishaps listeners feel like they’re being invited behind the curtain. You also have the opportunity to help listeners feel less alone when they hear someone else discuss difficulties they too may face.

Well-Researched Content & Expert Guests

When you promise valuable information or interviews, delivering the goods is essential for maintaining trust. That means doing your homework, preparing thoughtful questions, and choosing guests who bring true expertise. Maintenance Phase and If Books Could Kill, for example, are known for their rigorous fact-checking and expert sourcing, giving listeners confidence that they’re getting solid, well-researched information every time they hit play.

Consistent Publishing Schedule

Few things erode trust faster than an unpredictable posting schedule. If listeners come to expect a new episode every Tuesday morning, stick to it. Even better? Tease what’s coming next to build anticipation. Podcasts become part of listeners’ weekly routines, and create a dependable rhythm that feels almost like a standing date with friends.

High-Quality Audio Production

Good audio isn’t just about sounding professional, it’s about respecting your listeners’ time and attention. Clean editing, consistent levels, and subtle use of room tone or music beds help create an experience that feels seamless and trustworthy. Think of it like good writing: When the mechanics are strong, the reader (or listener) can focus fully on the story. Many indie shows, like You’re Wrong About, strike this balance beautifully with crisp production that never feels overproduced.

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Sparking Excitement

Trust might bring listeners back, but excitement is what keeps them counting down the days to your next episode. To build lasting loyalty, you want to create a sense of momentum. Here’s how to keep the energy high.

Compelling Storytelling Structure

Great storytelling is probably the most important thing when it comes to audience excitement. That means hooking listeners with a strong opening, building narrative arcs that make them care about what happens next, and delivering satisfying resolutions. This can be done effectively in every genre of podcast, not just fiction.

Effective Pacing & Episode Length

It’s very important to know when to linger and when to move things along. Balancing deep dives with concise segments helps maintain a dynamic, engaging flow. Short-form bonus episodes, minisodes, or “extras” can be sprinkled between longer feature episodes to keep things fresh.

Creative Segments & Formats

Shaking up your format can inject excitement into your show without alienating your audience. Recurring features—like a “Tip of the Week” or a quarterly Q&A—become something listeners look forward to. Don’t be afraid to experiment. Narrative storytelling, interviews, roundtables, and solo monologues each bring a different energy. Reply All famously alternated between investigative pieces and playful “Super Tech Support” episodes, keeping listeners engaged in a variety of ways.

Consistent Publishing Schedule (Again!)

Yes, consistency builds trust, but it also builds excitement. Knowing that new episodes reliably drop every Wednesday morning, for example, gives listeners something to anticipate.

Narrative Cliffhangers & Teasers

Few things fuel word-of-mouth buzz like a good cliffhanger. Ending an episode with a dangling thread or hinting at a big reveal next week gives listeners a reason to keep thinking about your podcast and to bring it up in conversations. Podcast titan Serial ended most episodes with an open question or cliffhanger and people could not stop talking about it.

Strengthening Connection

Connection is where a podcast stops being just another show and starts feeling like a companion. When listeners feel seen, heard, and part of something bigger, they’re far more likely to stick around and bring friends along, too. Here’s how to make your audience feel connected.

Direct Address & Inclusive Language

Speaking directly to your listeners (“you”) and using inclusive phrases like “we” or “our community” instantly makes the experience more personal. It shifts the tone from performance to conversation.

Listener Spotlights & Interactive Rituals

Highlighting listener stories, voice memos, or comments is a simple but powerful way to show that you’re paying attention. Listeners are much more likely to share episodes with friends that feature their own email or comments. You can also create fun rituals, like a signature greeting, a recurring inside joke, or a quirky sign-off that listeners can anticipate and participate in.

Exclusive Insider Access

Offering Patreon-only episodes, behind-the-scenes updates, or private chats invite your most loyal listeners even closer. These small gestures create a feeling of belonging, and turn casual listeners into superfans.

Community Building Beyond the Podcast

Building connection doesn’t stop at the mic. Promoting episodes through social media and collaborations with other podcasters or writers extends the conversation, and gives listeners more ways to stay involved with the podcast and each other.

Once trust, connection and excitement are present for a sustained period of time, listeners will begin to feel a sense of comfort from your podcast. They know what to expect, they understand who you are and they know how your podcast makes them feel. In hard times, we all want to reach for a sure-thing, and often that can be a favorite podcast.

The post Captivating Your Podcast Audience: The Parasocial Connection appeared first on Writer's Digest.

(16 Common Marketing Terms for Copywriters.)

Today’s copywriters, he said, must also act as fractional CMOs (or Chief Marketing Officer) for their clients to deliver maximum value.

According to Brick Marketing (4/2/25): “Fractional CMO services offer C-suite professionals an agile solution to access senior-level marketing expertise on a part-time basis. A fractional CMO provides strategic oversight, aligns marketing initiatives with business objectives, and ensures teams are focused on delivering measurable results.”

Instead of being only a copywriter, says this Gen Z fellow, copywriters need to offer a whole host of related marketing services. These can include creating funnels, SEO, managing online ad campaigns, and advice on marketing strategy.

But this is hardly a new idea. In fact, it’s been around for decades.

When I became a full-time freelance copywriter in February 1982, my letterhead read “Bob Bly—Copywriter/Consultant.”

My specialty was writing direct mail. But direct mail has many moving pieces and parts. So clients relied on me to suggest offers and versions to test. Help with graphic design, printing, mailing lists, postal regulations, key coding, lettershop, and more.

A DM copywriter had to have a working knowledge of all these pieces and parts. And if he didn’t provide these services, he had to at least have a stable of mailing list brokers, freelance graphic designers, and printers to recommend to his clients. Today I maintain a list of recommended vendors on my website: https://www.bly.com/newsite/Pages/vendors.php

Some DM copywriters provided a one-stop, full-service DM agency service—managing, coordinating, and handling everything. Others, like me and Richard Armstrong, recommend and work with top DM graphic designers.  But, as Richard says, “it’s not a package deal.” You have to hire us—and then our vendors—separately.

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It was similar in other media. If you wrote TV and radio commercials, you just did the script—which was then handed to producers, directors, studios, and production houses.

If you wrote catalog and brochure copy, you handled the copy only. Professional graphic artists handled the design. We copywriters were free to focus on what we did and liked best: writing.

Today copy is still important, but it is on equal and sometimes even lesser footing than the other pieces and parts of digital marketing—everything from Facebook ad campaigns and social media, to funnel-building and analytics. And some clients demand that you be proficient in specific tools and software. Back in the day, all you needed was a typewriter and a telephone.

To hand in your copy, you put the pages in a 9 by 12-inch envelope, with a piece of cardboard inside to prevent the paper from being folded or mutilated. Before computer printers, and before I had a photocopier, I made a photocopy of my draft at the copy shop around the corner; I had tried using carbon paper, but never took to it.

I miss the simplicity of the good old days. I even miss my IBM Selectric—in particular, the feel of pounding away at the keyboard, and the satisfying sound of the keys crisply hitting the paper.

The post The Copywriter as a CMO appeared first on Writer's Digest.

In my last post, I discussed examples of podcasts created by writers. These individuals were able to lean on their skills and experiences as writers to craft excellent, well-known podcasts that helped advance their careers.

For some, it was simply their skills that were a great fit for podcasting, others were able to adapt written work into audio episodes and some dug into heaps of previous research to create something new but adjacent to their written work. Each situation is unique but the opportunities are vast for writers looking to podcast.

Generating Buzz Around Your Upcoming Work

Podcasting is an excellent promotional tool for projects and for your personal brand as a writer or creator. A straightforward way to promote your written work on an existing podcast (yours or someone else’s) would be to feature a book teaser in the podcast feed if the book is relevant to the show.

I think the most valuable method is networking with podcasters to gain exposure to established audiences, whether you have your own podcast or not. Booking guest appearances on other podcasts is free promotion for you and your work. Find podcasts that align with your book’s theme or audience and pitch yourself as a guest. Their listeners are essentially a target audience for your work.

A step beyond guest appearances is cross promotion. If you have a podcast, have the host of a podcast you appeared on come onto your show. You can also create two-part crossover episodes with another podcast (half of the episode is on their podcast feed and the other half is on yours) to encourage new listeners to come to your feed in order to finish listening.

Another method of cross promotion is for podcasters to place advertisements or trailers for each other’s podcasts on their own episodes or feeds. Being willing to network and participate in interviews is one of the best ways to increase your exposure.

Creating a Companion Podcast for Your Written Work

Some writers (and publishers) create podcast series as companions to their books. These podcasts might include behind-the-scenes discussions about the writing process, character deep dives or lore expansions, reader Q&A episodes, thematic explorations related to the book’s subject matter, historical context, and more.

A companion podcast can enhance readers’ engagement, especially in sci-fi and fantasy genres where fandoms commonly develop. It also attracts new audiences who may only discover your book through an episode of the podcast.

Side-Stepping Traditional Publishing Routes

Some indie authors have turned to podcasting as an alternative distribution method for audiobooks. A self-publishing writer could release audiobook chapters as individual podcast episodes and then offer the full audiobook behind a paywall. How much to release for free varies by situation. Some authors release their entire book or series as a free podcast and still see enormous book sales.

Scott Sigler for example, who I mentioned in my last post, released his work as free audio content and became a New York Times bestseller. It wasn’t until after the success of his podcast that he was reconsidered by major publishers. His story is a prime example of how podcasting can help launch a writer’s career.

Content Repackaging

If you’re a writer, then there is a good chance you have archives of writings and research that could be reworked for podcasting. Blog posts, essays, short stories, and previously unfinished writings can be adapted into audio experiences.

You may also have stacks of research from an old project. If you’ve already conducted the research for written work, why not explore repurposing it? Podcasting provides a platform to discuss your findings, interview experts, and share insights that might not make it into your final written work.

Insight via Analytics

One of the challenges writers face is tracking progress and reader engagement. Podcasting platforms provide analytics that offer insights into listener demographics, episode performance, and audience retention. You can discover how many listeners finished an episode, and if there were places in the episode where listeners dropped off. Unlike traditional publishing, where engagement is harder to quantify, podcast metrics provide excellent feedback so that writers can adjust their strategy based on data.

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Accessing Non-Readers

You’ll likely find that the audience for your podcast work is a little different than the audience for your written work, as some people who enjoy your style may not be big readers, but love to listen. There are also plenty of people who would like to read, but are too busy.

If you release audio content, interested but busy people can listen while they go about their daily tasks. This makes your work accessible to a broader audience, which can grow exponentially as listeners are able to easily share the podcast with friends.

Breaking Through Writer’s Block

Working in a new media forces us to forge new neural pathways in our brains. It can feel difficult at first, but with repetition, the pathways grow deeper and our new ways of working begin to feel more natural. This mental expansion can help open us up creatively through the experience of learning, novelty, and increased brain connections.

A simple way to use podcasting as a block breaking exercise would be to look through some of your work or research and try to construct a 20-minute podcast episode from some of the material. You will probably find yourself reorganizing information and changing the narrative structure to fit the new format, which can help with breaking out of routine thinking.

Embracing podcasting can open doors to fresh storytelling possibilities and help put writers on track for the next chapter of their careers. However you approach podcasting, remember to make it your own. You don’t even have to create your own podcast—guest appearances can do wonders for exposure. To get started, consider digging through your old research or pitching yourself as a guest on a podcast!

The post 7 Ways Podcasting Can Help With Writing Goals appeared first on Writer's Digest.

In the last 30+ years that I’ve worked as a book critic, the publishing industry has experienced some radical changes. The birth of digital publishing and the rise of e-books, the sad demise of independent and chain brick-and-mortar bookstores, and the emergence of audiobooks, have irrevocably restructured the publishing world.

But arguably the biggest transformation in writing and publishing fiction over the last few decades is more subtle—and so much more profound.

It’s the speed in which narratives progress, both in terms of content and structure. Everything is faster, more streamlined, built for those readers with the attention span of mayflies.

Welcome to the brave new world of instant gratification: SMS language, 280-character (or shorter) tweet lengths, and endlessly scrolling through Instagram Reels and TikToks, swiping after mere microseconds if the content isn’t interesting in some way.

To the surprise of no one, our attention spans are getting shorter and shorter and …

What was I saying again?

The average human attention span decreased by nearly 25 percent from 2000 to 2015, shrinking from 12 seconds in 2000 to around 8 seconds in the mid-2010s.

For comparison, a goldfish’s attention span is 9 seconds.

The reasons for this fleeting focus are myriad. A 2019 study from researchers at the Technical University of Denmark found that the inundation of information bombarding those living in a digitalized world has profoundly narrowed people’s attention spans.

“The negative effects of social media and a hectic news cycle on our attention span has been an on-going discussion in recent years … A new study … finds that our collective attention span is indeed narrowing, and that this effect occurs—not only on social media—but also across diverse domains including books, web searches, movie popularity, and more.”

In a Time.com article from 2023 entitled “Why Everyone’s Worried About Their Attention Span—and How to Improve Yours,” Adam Brown, co-director of the Center for Attention, Learning, and Memory at St. Bonaventure University in New York, is quoted as saying increasing inattention has reached “epidemic” levels.

And this epidemic of narrowing attention spans has negatively impacted our reading habits in obvious—and deeply concerning—ways. Younger readers, for example, are reading less.

According to a survey done by the NAEP (National Assessment of Educational Progress) in 2019–2020, the amount of young people who read for fun has declined from 35 percent in 1984 to barely 17 percent.

Additionally, the results of a survey conducted by Today.yougov.com in December 2023 found that nearly half of Americans (46 percent) didn’t even read one book that year.

This life of endless distractions has undeniably impacted the way in which we perceive the world—and has influenced our ability to focus on anything that doesn’t hold our attention for more than a few moments.

As our way of life has slowly but surely transformed many of us into bipedal mayflies, so too has the $28.1 billion publishing industry (savvily) changed to better serve the shifting needs of its readers.

As a book critic who has reviewed more than 10,000 titles, I’ve seen these changes firsthand—and if you’ve read a diversity of fiction releases from the ’70s, ’80s, and ’90s, you’ve probably also realized how remarkably different contemporary releases are compared to those from just a few decades ago.

Here are some things to consider as you’re writing, or planning to write, your next novel.

Books are getting shorter.

A study by WordsRated in June of 2022 looked at titles that had made it to the New York Times bestseller list between 2011–2021. The results were telling: the average length of the NYT bestseller decreased by 51.5 pages from 2011 to 2021, from 437.5 to 386 (11.8 percent). Also, long books (more than 400 pages) are all but disappearing—the share of shelf-bending bestsellers went from 54 percent in 2011 to just 38 percent in 2021, a 30 percent drop.

I’ve reviewed more novels under 300 pages in the last year than the previous two or three years combined—especially when it comes to self-published releases. Getting assigned a novel to review like Ken Liu’s Speaking Bones (weighing in at 1,072 pages) is becoming vanishingly rare.

I don’t think this is a trend either: It’s permanent. There will always be a place for doorstop reads—particularly in certain categories like epic fantasy and grand-scale science fiction—and established writers like Stephen King and Barbara Kingsolver will always have more leeway when it comes to novel length. (I’m looking at Donna Tartt’s 775-page The Goldfinch on my bookshelf as I write this.)

So, the shorter your novel is, in this mayfly reader world, the more the chances are of it not only being published but being commercially successful as well.

Novels of all categories are being structured more like thrillers.

Three decades ago, novels frequently took their sweet time getting to the hooks. Epic fantasy novels, in particular, may have been 100 pages deep before readers got to the big hook. But, taking their cue from mainstream thrillers—which have hooks as close to the beginning as possible, sometimes even in the first sentence!—writers of novels in all categories have been restructuring their works to mimic thrillers, that is to say to read like highly palatable, fast-paced, page-turners that readers consume like potato chips. The indicators are evident in any category you read, be it romance, mystery, horror, or mainstream fiction. The hooks in recently released novels are now routinely very close to the beginning, almost always imbedded in the very first scene, which is usually action-packed or emotionally intense in some way.

Octavia Butler’s bestseller Kindred is a perfect example. The hook is right there in the first sentence!

I lost an arm on my last trip home.

Gillian Flynn’s Gone Girl is another great example, with an unforgettable first line:

When I think of my wife, I always think of her head.

The same thing is true with All the Colors of the Dark, Chris Whitaker’s recently released masterwork:

From the flat roof of the kitchen Patch looked out through serried pin oaks and white pine to the loom of St. Francois Mountains that pressed the small town of Monta Clare into its shade no matter the season. At thirteen he believed entirely that there was gold beyond the Ozark Plateau. That there was a brighter world just waiting for him.

Though later that morning, when he lay dying in the woodland, he’d take that morning still and purse it till the colors ran because he knew it could not have been so beautiful. That nothing was ever so beautiful in his life.

Pick up any commercially successful novel—regardless of category—published in the last few years and I’ll bet you that there is a solid hook of some kind on the very first page: an intriguing statement, an intense or memorable scene, the seed of a mystery, etc. Why are writers across all categories of fiction doing this religiously now? Because, like a trending TikTok meme, these hooks grab the reader’s attention quickly and, ideally, get them so emotionally invested, or simply curious, that they read the entire story.

And while this is certainly nothing new—I can list dozens of classics with iconic hooks right in the first sentence (like E. B. White’s Charlotte’s Web: “ ‘Where’s Papa going with that ax?’ said Fern to her mother as they were setting the table for breakfast.”)— the takeaway here is the frequency in which this is happening now, which is to say almost all the time.

In addition to placing hooks as early in the story as possible, the majority of chapter endings in those aforementioned commercially successful novels are now often concluded with some kind of bombshell, be it a jaw-dropping revelation, a cliffhanger, a powerful statement, an unforgettable visual, etc. I’ve seen this in all categories of genre fiction (romance, fantasy, horror, SF, mystery) as well as mainstream fiction. This may not seem to be significant but cumulatively it creates a novel that readers literally can’t put down. Thriller writers like Harlan Coben, Lee Child, and Jeff Abbott have been doing this for decades—because it works! If your novel has consistently powerful chapter endings, readers will find it virtually impossible to put your book down—and in a world filled with DNFs, this is a huge win!

As an example, let’s take the first and last sentences from the first chapter of Rob Hart’s recently released Assassins Anonymous. The first few sentences couldn’t be any more effective as a hook:

Adrenaline is the ultimate painkiller. It doesn’t last very long. But in those white-hot moments when your gut gets pierced by a bullet, or a knife cleaves your skin, you would be amazed at how little you feel it.

And Hart ends the first chapter as strongly as he began it with a narrative brass knuckle punch to the skull:

I press my hand to my gut.
Hot blood gushes between my fingers.
This wasn’t what I expected from the day.

Hart continues to use this technique throughout the entire novel—Chapter Two, for example, ends with “As I turn, a boot smashes into my chest.”—which creates a high-intensity storyline that is exceedingly difficult to put down and walk away from. I liken this to trying to get off a roller coaster as it is rocketing through a particularly heart-stopping sequence of vertical loops. No one would want to stop the ride at that point. They’re going to keep reading!

Chapter lengths seem to be getting shorter as well, although this isn’t as evident in categories like fantasy, which still feature chapters that can be up to 50 pages long and longer. Shorter chapters give readers less opportunities to be bored—and, in theory, keeps narrative momentum brisk.

Look at Whitaker’s aforementioned All the Colors of the Dark. Although the novel is 592 pages, there are 261 chapters. That averages out to be just over 2.2 pages per chapter!

Additionally, shorter chapters coupled with alternating POVs in each chapter keep the story fresh and, hopefully, readers on the edge of their seats.

Lastly, just like thrillers, is the focus on intensity level, be it internal conflict, external chaos, emotional turmoil, etc. Regardless of category, an utterly readable novel in today’s market will have a high-intensity level throughout the entire story—ideally tension on every page. If you’re a writer, you don’t want any extended sequences that are low energy—that’s the kiss of death. You probably shouldn’t embrace your inner Tolkien and spend 10 pages describing the attributes of a tree if your goal is to write a commercially successful novel.

Everything is shorter—except title length.

Not surprisingly, I’ve seen a marked decrease in the length of synopses, back cover copy, and review excerpts … even press releases are getting shorter. Everything is more concise, more condensed, more to the point. The days of back cover copy filling up the entire back cover are long gone. Is anyone really going to read it? (Answer: No, probably not.)

I’ve written thousands of reviews for companies like Publishers Weekly, Kirkus, the Chicago Tribune, and BN.com—and many of those review excerpts have appeared on book covers. While not a radical change, I have noticed that over the last decade or so publishers are using fewer words in these excerpts. Back in 2011, for example, HarperCollins released The Breaking by Marcus Pelegrimas and they used an excerpt from a review I wrote for BN.com on the front cover. It was three full lines of text—21 words! I rarely see that any more on front covers. Nowadays review excerpts are generally just a few words: “extraordinary,” “A masterwork,” etc. While not a big deal, it is indicative of the trend towards marketing to mayfly attention spans.

And, strangely enough, as all of these elements are decreasing in size, book titles are getting longer. An article published on TowardsDataScience.com in 2019 found that fiction titles are getting longer as the actual page counts are shrinking. The researcher who wrote the article calculated the title lengths of all New York Times bestsellers from 2011 and found that the average title increased from 2.5 words to 3 words during that time. The number of bestsellers with seven or more words was also noteworthy: The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet’s Nest, A Leaf on the Wind of All Hallows, Two Years Eight Months and Twenty-Eight Nights, and My Grandmother Asked Me to Tell You She’s Sorry, to name a few.

So, what’s the big takeaway here? As a writer, you should know your audience—or, more specifically, understand your audience’s attention span. Utilize the tools and techniques that will keep readers engaged and turning pages.

Ask yourselves these questions before you submit anything for publication:

• Have I trimmed the narrative fat off my story?

• Is the initial hook as close to the beginning as I can get it?

• Do my chapters end with a brass knuckle statement, intriguing image, or jaw-dropping revelation?

• Do I have some form of intensity powering all of my sequences?

• Is my synopsis and/or back cover copy focused and concise?

If you’ve actually read this entire article to its end, congratulations. You’re not a mayfly yet!

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(Why Do Some Authors Cross Out Their Name When Signing Books?)

In a recent article for Publishers Weekly, Sean Manning, the new publisher of Simon & Schuster’s flagship imprint, explained why he won’t require any of their authors to have blurbs. He, in short, considers blurbs a waste of time, saying, “the solicited authors could be reading books they actually want to read that will benefit their work—rather than reading books they feel they have to read as a courtesy.” A valid criticism, surely, but one perhaps more reflective of a particular approach to writing blurbs than something innate to the process.

Manning also writes that, the “favor trading” of blurbing “creates an incestuous and unmeritocratic literary ecosystem that often rewards connections over talent.” Which, again, I would suggest is the result of a particular approach to blurbing that includes favoring the renown of the blurber over their real connection to or enthusiasm for a title. I would also add that ‘incestuous’ and ‘unmeritocratic’ are adjectives that describe many facets of contemporary book publishing, and blurbs are merely an outwardly visible indication. MFA programs, one could argue, do as much if not more than blurbs to promote this kind of ecosystem, but that’s a conversation for another day.

I’m going to be a contrarian: I like book blurbs. I truly delight in receiving them as an author. Sometimes I see a blurb on a book jacket and it manages to make the book sound more compelling than the official synopsis ever could. And, yes, I love writing a good book blurb. I think it’s an art form. Like any art form, we can all learn how to do it better. I offer the following as a guide for those in despair, with the caveat that there are other maps, and you may wish to seek them out or draw them yourself.

Choosing a Book

Yes, of course, one first has to be asked to write a blurb, and so there is a certain amount of choice that is always outside our control. But fundamentally we, as prospective blurbers, have the final say in whether we write a blurb.

By my estimate, there are only two types of books you should ever write blurbs for:

1. Books by writers whose work you already know you adore; or,
2. Books that, after reading the press release, or the synopsis, or the first page, or whatever, you are genuinely excited to read. Not a book that sounds tolerable to read, but a book you cannot wait to start in on.

Personally, I can tell with reasonable accuracy whether I’ll be stoked about a book by reading the title and the first page, so I tend to focus on those and barely glance at the synopsis or the press release. You probably have your own ways of finding books to love, so use them.

Saying No

Sometimes you will be asked to blurb books that do not fit into either of those two categories, and my sincerest advice is to say no. There are many very polite ways to do this. I myself have received some extremely kind rejections to book blurb requests over the years.

One said she did love the book, but felt her own audience was a bit too genre-specific for her blurb to be useful. Another said she had a principled objection to book blurbs and we had a long, heartfelt chat about the industry. One wrote a review-length explanation of how she felt about the book, which included the parts of it she found off-putting. That last one stung at first, but as time passed, the ache subsided and I realized I was grateful for how much thought she put into the book, even if it didn’t end up being the right book for her. Many authors don’t reply at all, which is also okay.

If you want an easy formula for turning down a blurb request, just keep it simple, professional, and a bit vague. Example: “Thank you for thinking of me as a possible blurber. Unfortunately I don’t have time right now to give the book the attention it deserves.” (Feel free to use that verbatim, if it helps.)

Actually Writing the Thing

On the other hand, if you’ve said yes to writing a blurb, the time will come when you actually have to put pen to paper or fingertips to keyboard. Maybe you’re new to writing blurbs, or maybe you just find the process painful and would like some tips that will ease the burden. I am here to help. 

The following process is one I successfully adapted from a field where I have a great deal of experience: writing and editing book reviews. It isn’t meant to be prescriptive. Think of each step more like a writing prompt to get you going.

1. List three adjectives that describe the book. If you get stuck, flip through the book and pick three words or phrases from the book itself that you think embody the spirit of the book. I strongly recommend, at least at this stage, moving beyond book blurb cliches like “unflinching,” “propulsive,” or “tour-de-force” and really trying to get at the heart of the text.
2. In one sentence, explain what you find to be the most unique or interesting aspect of the book.
3. Without looking back at the book, try to name three examples of any the following that stand out in your memory: subject, image, character, setting, plot line, craft.
4. Who is an actual person you know who you would recommend this book to, and why? Once you’ve written that, rewrite it so it speaks to a more general type of reader.
5. What other books does this book remind you of, and what does it have in common with them?

That exercise should leave you with several elements or ideas. You probably won’t be able to include all of the material you produce in your blurb. Maybe you can identify a theme or pattern in your answers. Or maybe you can pick through your answers and select a few insights about the book that you personally find most compelling.

Once you have the basic material you want to include, it’s time to string the ideas together so they have flow, coherency, and elegance. Is this the hardest part? Perhaps. But hey, you’re a writer, this is what you’re good at. Don’t be afraid to treat a book blurb like a creative writing exercise, and get a touch weird with it.

If you’ve reached this point and you are just not interested and not enjoying yourself, take a step back and assess whether it’s because you have lackluster or ambivalent feelings about the book itself. If you are just not as excited about the book as you hoped to be, go back to the section above, “Saying No.” It is okay to decide that, after all, you’re not the right person to blurb the book. Better that than an unenthusiastic blurb.

If, however, you are still excited about the book, it might just be that you are experiencing the perennial discomfort of being a writer. Proceed as you would with any other writing project.

Click to continue.

Reminding Ourselves Why We’re Doing This

As you read the book, or write the blurb, there may well be moments where you ask yourself why you are bothering with blurbing. You might find your mind wandering to your long to-do list and thinking that you ought to be spending time elsewhere. And sure, there will be instances where, again, you’ll have to go back to the “Saying No” section of this article for one reason or another. 

But other times, all you might need is a reminder of why blurbs are worthwhile. Consider:

• Keeping up Morale. Your blurb might be some of the first unadulterated praise a writer ever hears about their work. Editors are concerned at least as much with polishing a book as with lauding it, so feedback to authors tends to be a mix of positive and instructive criticism. Publishers send book contracts but many never say aloud what they liked about the book or why they chose it. As a blurber, you are one of the first people whose only job is to love the book. As a writer, I still think of blurbs people wrote for my books years ago. Blurbs offer reassurance of the worth of writing anything, ever.
• Promoting Discussion. A great book blurb offers insight into the text. It points readers to important areas of focus. It gives authors and publishers new ways of understanding what they are putting out into the world. It can even offer an entry point to book reviewers, whose job is then to carry the conversation forward.
• Building Community. Blurbing a book lets you develop and strengthen relationships you have with authors, publishers, agents, and publicists. On a professional level, this is good networking, and on a personal level, it is the same as any other relationship. You are forging connections with people, many of whom will have the same interests and priorities as you do, and that’s inherently valuable, regardless of whether it advances your career.
• Selling Books. I’m not actually convinced that blurbs sell all that many books, or at least, most blurbs don’t. Maybe there’s some kind of Stephen King exception, or Big 5 caveat, but in the small press world I’m from, I neither write nor request book blurbs on the assumption that a spike in sales will follow. Nevertheless, I do believe there’s some practical purpose in the cross-referencing and cross-pollination that book blurbs allow. Fans of one author can be drawn to the work of another author, and I think that, to a certain extent, this can flow both ways. If I see a blurb from a writer I love on a book, it might pique my interest. Conversely, if I see a stellar blurb on a book I love, I do actually sometimes look into the blurber’s own work.
• Fun. Well, maybe it’s not for everyone, but most writers I know do find it a pleasure to talk and write about their favorite books. Blurbs are just another chance to do that.

A Parting Exhortation

Of course there are problems with the literary industry’s relationship to book blurbs. Anything that can be considered an industry is going to have several endemic problems. Sean Manning may in fact be correct that one of the insidious aspects of book blurbing, as it often stands presently, is the compulsory nature of it.

And yet we don’t have to be these sorts of book blurbers or book blurb seekers. As authors, endorsers, and publishers of books, we can choose to eschew back-scratching, nepotism, and their nefarious ilk, and instead seek reciprocity, delight, and meaningful connectivity.

The post How to Love a Book Blurb appeared first on Writer's Digest.

(List of Book Fairs and Book Festivals by State.)

These events come in all sizes and genres. Some are regional, themed, or genre-specific, such as Christian writers, children’s literature, or mystery and crime writers. Artist and craft festivals offer authors opportunities to participate at a booth or table and meet readers and fellow artists. Industry-specific events are also great opportunities for niche books, such as a wedding-themed romance, or sci-fi and fantasy authors selling books at gaming and pop culture conventions.

Organizers often run concurrent events, such as author panels, story times for children, or performances. The more swag or freebies, the better. Larger events may have music, food trucks, and other entertainment. The larger the offerings, the bigger the draw for attendees.

A Calculated Business Decision

There are costs involved when participating in a book festival, including the cost in time away from writing or a full-time job. One must also factor in the financial overhead of booth fees, swag, and any travel costs. Authors need to be selective and find those events that fit their comfort level, budget, and marketing plan. 

If an author has a new book coming out, it is a great time to scale up events. It’s also important to see if the event will be marketed in advance and well-attended. A smaller investment in a well-attended, focused event could pay off handsomely.

Connections and Karma

The benefits to authors extend beyond the metrics of book sales and adding names to your email list. Connecting with readers in person, and with fellow writers, can lead to new readers, more events or appearances, and other opportunities.

Kristina Makansi, who writes as Marie K. Savage, has been in the publishing world since 2010. She summed up the power of connections. “Even if you don’t sell a lot of books, you may meet that one person who is the right connection in your career or your personal life. It’s that one person at a time, who tells someone else about you and your books, who tells someone else, and so on.”

Authors can also hone their pitch at such events.

“Book festivals are a great chance to practice my 30-second pitch on what the books are about,” said author Patricia L. Brooks. “I can answer a lot of other questions about publishing or writing memoirs, too.”

Brooks has published four books, three of which are memoirs: Gifts of Sisterhood, Three Husbands and a Thousand Boyfriends, and Sick as My Secrets. She also teaches a class on writing memoirs. She is the founder and director of a women’s writing group, the Scottsdale Society of Women Writers. “I also attend events to support fellow members and writers,” she added.

For contemporary novelist Sheila Grinell, festivals serve a different purpose than other author events like writers’ conferences. She is the author of two novels, Appetite and The Contract, and participates in three to four events a year.

“Writers’ conferences are about meeting other writers and improving your craft,” Grinell said. “Author festivals and book festivals are about connecting with readers. I go to festivals to talk to readers, make friends, and have fun.”

Festivals Give Back to the Community

As writers, we are part of a community and need to support and promote each other. Camaraderie rocks far more than competition. It’s also important to support those organizations that we believe in and that bring meaning and value to our communities.

Author Jessica McCann of Phoenix recently added the title “festival organizer” to her long list of literary accomplishments. She is the author of four books, including three historical novels, and has participated in many festivals. But after one grueling experience, she dreamed of an event that treated authors like royalty. They could show up and hang out with fellow readers and authors and sell their books.

McCann is also the parent of an adult child with autism who has thrived with the organization SEEDs for Autism, which stands for success through education, exploration and development.

“He has been a participant at SEEDs for several years. It’s a nonprofit organization in Phoenix that provides education, social skills, and vocational training for young adults on the spectrum,” she said. “The program has improved my son’s self-esteem and quality of life on so many levels.”

Thus, the 2025 inaugural Arizona Author Book Festival was born. The free community event takes place on April 27, 2025, and will include author talks, book signings, children’s story time, food trucks, live music, giveaways, and more. It takes place at the SEEDs for Autism campus and 100 percent of sponsorships and vendor fees support their programs.

“My personal mission for this event is to champion literacy, lift up local authors, build community, and raise awareness about autism,” said McCann.

In keeping with the “treat them like royalty” mantra, there will be story time and photos with the King, Queen, and Knights of the Medieval Times dinner and tournament.

Count me in, Jessica. Everyone wins at this event.

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Using video before your book hits the shelves can help you build relationships with potential readers and create excitement around your book launch.

Here’s how to leverage video—and why it’s so effective:

1. Start using video early (before your book launch!)

The idea of being on camera can be intimidating for many people. That’s because it’s a vulnerable experience! But that vulnerability is exactly why it’s such a powerful tool for connecting with people.

The more video you do, the easier it will feel. And as you create videos that engage your audience, you’ll build momentum around your book and get people interested in grabbing a copy for themselves. Being a media-ready author gives you a leg up when it comes to the factors that influence book sales.

2. Give your audience a peek behind-the-scenes.

People love seeing the process behind-the-scenes. It helps them connect with you as an author, and it also gets them excited about the book itself. They want to know what it was like for you to write your book, how you developed your ideas, and how you navigated the ups and downs of the writing journey.

For nonfiction authors, your behind-the-scenes videos can include discussions about your research process or how you tackled challenges in your personal life that influenced the book. You’ll also want to address how your book can help solve a specific problem for your readers.

For fiction authors, you might share inspiration for your characters, settings, or plot, or discuss the world-building process. It’s also great to share your possible and final book cover designs too.

3. Provide value in your videos.

One of the biggest misconceptions about giving away content is that people won’t want to buy your book if they’ve already heard you talk about it. In reality, the opposite is true!

When you share helpful insights or snippets of your book’s content in a video, it creates a sense of anticipation. Your audience will feel more connected to your message and will be more inclined to purchase the book to learn more. I offer lots of freebies and I have for years—because it works!

Don’t be afraid to give away useful tips, ideas, or sneak peeks into your content. For nonfiction, this might mean offering a practical tip or strategy from your book. For fiction, you can reveal the inspiration behind a plot twist or discuss character development. You can always remind your audience, “There’s more in the book!” to encourage people to buy it.

4. Include your email list and social media following early on.

As you write your book, don’t forget to include your email list and social media followers in the process. Share updates and exciting milestones with them. People love to be part of the journey and feel like they’re involved in the book’s creation.

Via email, you can send updates about your writing journey, book cover reveals, or milestones like receiving your first proof copy. On social media, post regular updates, behind-the-scenes photos, and videos to build excitement. Share short clips of you talking about the book or answering questions from your followers. Make sure to pay attention to the replies you get and the feedback because you can always use that for additional content.

[Media-Savvy Author: Video Storytelling, Bringing Your Book to Live]

5. Leverage events and livestreams to build momentum.

If you have any speaking engagements, virtual or in-person, make sure you’re capturing those moments on video and sharing them on social media and with your email list. It’s important to pitch the media so more people know about the important work you’re doing!

Even if you don’t have any events scheduled, consider starting your own livestream show or podcast where you talk about topics related to your book. You can interview people who are experts in your book’s field, discuss ideas that didn’t make it into the book, or just talk about your journey as an author.

6. Include a call to action and keep the conversation going.

Every video you make should include a call to action, whether that’s encouraging people to sign up for your newsletter, follow you on social media, or pre-order your book. Keep the conversation going by responding to comments, asking questions, and engaging with your followers.

And just because you’ve released the book doesn’t mean you should stop creating video content. Continue sharing your journey, speaking about new topics, or even creating spin-off content related to your book’s themes. The more you keep showing up for your audience, the more they’ll want to keep supporting you.

By starting early, sharing valuable content, and using video to build relationships with your audience, you can create excitement, generate pre-launch buzz, and make sure your book hits the shelves with momentum. The key is to engage, build trust, and always offer something of value—whether it’s a tip, a sneak peek, or a conversation.

Remember, it’s not just about selling your book. Reframe your video mindset to be about connecting with people, sharing your journey, and making them feel excited to be part of your story. You have something important to share (remember, writing and sharing your work are acts of service!)—and video can help those people find you.

The post Media-Savvy Author: How to Use Video to Sell More Books appeared first on Writer's Digest.

(The Writer’s Guide to Being a Great Podcast Guest.)

For decades, Talese wore suits out of a sign of respect for his sources, for the story. But there comes a time when wearing a suit makes you look far too stuffed up, especially if you live in the Pacific Northwest, like I now do.

To be clear, I am not a follower of fast fashion, or fashion in general. My ideal outfit is a Metallica T-shirt, jeans, Chucks, and a Boston Red Sox cap. I don’t read the fashion magazines and the only bags I carry are the bruise-colored ones under my eyes. That said, when an author rounds third base from the private life of generation to the publicly facing side of book promotion, what we wear, like it or not, signals to potential readers how we work and what might be in that $35 hardback.

As a recovering suit wearer with a biography on the iconoclastic 1970s runner Steve Prefontaine coming out in the spring of 2025, I suddenly thought that I might need to consider my appearance. I’m a journalist, and Metallica shirts might not convey proof that I’m more than a basement blogger aggregating sources instead of tirelessly working the phones. But over-dressing in a Talese-ian three-piece wouldn’t reflect the counter-culture nature of the central figure I’m celebrating at the heart of The Front Runner. So, three beers deep (or was it four?), it got me thinking: Should we dress as true to ourselves as possible? Or do we dress for the book we’re selling?

Me not being the greatest case study, I sought a brilliant journalist and New York Times best-selling author Kim H. Cross. She writes nonfiction narratives that have ranged from natural disasters (What Stands in a Storm), architecture (The Stahl House), and true crime (In Light of All Darkness), the latter a revisiting to the Polly Klaas kidnapping and murder from the 1990s.

Similar to feeling out of sorts if I’m not wearing a Metallica shirt befitting of Beavis from Beavis and Butthead, Cross, writing to me in an email, admitted feeling insecure when not wearing “fleece, a wetsuit, or a helmet.” Cross is an avid mountain biker, water skier, and can wield an ax the way a conductor waves a baton to a steady 4/4.

While it would indeed be goofy to have a “costume” for each book, certain books might call for a certain aesthetic. Given the sensitivity around a story like In Light of All Darkness, Cross knew she needed to be more muted in appearance. Cross appeared on 20/20, did several public events where she had to navigate Klaas’s tragic story while also, you know, selling a book. It’s a thorny balance, part of the job, but as authors, we are, like it or not, our book’s PR machine and how we look and what we say might just be the difference between earning a sale and a life-long reader or someone judging your book by your cover and moving onto other authors.

For The Stahl House, which was a book just as much about aesthetics as it was about the story behind the iconic house, Cross said, “My wardrobe definitely reflected the book,” lots of vintage, mid-century pieces.

For In Light of All Darkness, it was a matter of being tasteful; she recruited a couple friends to “shop her closet” for her.

Friends: “What’s all this menswear? Where’s your black blazer? Don’t you have a pair of simple black slacks? A kitten heel?”

If people are going to judge our books by our cover, then it’s worth at least giving it some thought.

Come spring 2025, when The Front Runner comes out, I won’t overthink it. Since Steve Prefontaine was a hip, James Dean-ish figure, suits and ties seem way too formal for such a badass. Prefontaine was cool; wear a tie at your own risk.

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