Episode 186
Do you need help with your branding, ad copy, or writing career strategy? Do you have questions or ideas that you’d like to brainstorm with another author about? Jami has helped many authors with everything from overwhelm to sales pages to branding.
Jami shares the questions and topics that come up most often, the common mistakes she sees, and tips on when it’s time to ask for help. We talk about making money as an author, series creation, pen names, newsletter building, launching and much more.
Author Website:
💜 🎙 Become a supporter of the podcast! We can’t wait to give you a shoutout in a future episode. WishIdKnownForWriters.com/Support
Time Stamps:
0:05 Introduction
10:54 Supporter Chat
12:05 Jami’s Consulting
14:54 Who can Jami help
21:33 Should you go full time?
27:19 When should you get help?
28:18 Common issues
37:31 Amazon Sales Pages
44:11 Author Websites
Transcript:
Sara Rosett [00:00:05]:
Welcome to the wish I’d known then, podcast. I’m Sara Rosett.
Jami Albright [00:00:29]:
And I’m Jami Albright. And this week on the show, we have…
Sara Rosett [00:00:34]:
Jami. We are going to talk to Jami about some common issues that she sees over and over again with the people she talks with. With consulting.
Jami Albright [00:00:44]:
Yeah, there are common themes for sure when I’m talking to people. So hopefully this will help some people.
Sara Rosett [00:00:56]:
Yes. And it’s things that come up again and again in groups. So I think it’ll be really helpful, basically, like how to sort out when you need extra help and what you can fix yourself, sort of, right?
Jami Albright [00:01:08]:
Yeah. When do you need outside eyes and when can you do it yourself? And if you can’t afford it, then here are a few things to walk away, maybe actionable things you can do today.
Sara Rosett [00:01:23]:
Sounds great.
Jami Albright [00:01:24]:
Okay, what’s been going on with you?
Sara Rosett [00:01:27]:
Well, my husband is still in training in Denver, so I went back to see him for a couple of days, and we went up to the mountains and had two days in Estes Park, which I’d been to once, briefly. And we went back and it was beautiful. And just elk everywhere. I mean, it was amazing. They’re so, I guess used to humans, they would come down town and just hang out, and it was gorgeous. And the leaves were changing. So we did a drive through the mountains and looked at the aspens and it was really nice break.
Jami Albright [00:02:00]:
Oh, that’s great.
Sara Rosett [00:02:02]:
Yeah, so a little break. And on the writing side, I’ve almost got the survey finished. For the kickstarter. I’m using the Crowd Control Shopify app. Shopify lets you customize so many things the way you want, and Kickstarter lets you you can set up your campaign any way you want. So there’s so many variables. So I think I figured out the best way to do it for me. But, yeah, I think by the time this goes out, the surveys will have gone out and really happy with the way it’s working. So that’s super happy to be done with that. Getting close to the end of that phase. And then it will be just delivering all the physical items because all the digital stuff will go out either with the survey or like I’ve already sent out the bonus books. So just kind of getting another step closer to being done with that. So that is like it for me, not a whole lot. What about you?
Jami Albright [00:03:07]:
Well, I met my daughter’s, and so if you hear the alarm beeping, it’s just the dryers going. I mean, it’s just chaos here.
Sara Rosett [00:03:18]:
It’s real life.
Jami Albright [00:03:19]:
It’s real life. But she’s having a party for the four little ones, and it’s color party, and she’s an event planner, so this party is wow.
Sara Rosett [00:03:32]:
It’s going to be amazing, I’m sure.
Jami Albright [00:03:34]:
Yeah. I’ll get pictures. It’s just crazy. Anyway, so I’m here, I’m helping with that and then just been thinking about this story that I want to write, and I may be about to do what I’ve told people not to do, like, my entire career, but not as I do. Yeah.
Sara Rosett [00:04:02]:
In what way? What do you mean?
Jami Albright [00:04:03]:
Well, because first of all, while it’s still on brand, because it will be funny in part, it’s off brand because it’s a sad story, but it’s uplifting. Like it will end upliftingly. But yeah, I just don’t know when I initially write it, I will be going against advice.
Sara Rosett [00:04:33]:
Right. But you know that.
Jami Albright [00:04:34]:
I admire and whose advice I really value. But this story is written in my head, and I’m going to write it on paper like I see it in my head. I made that decision this week. But I’m also going to try to do a rom.com. I worked on a rom.com before my sister really got sick. I’ve got about 25,000 words on it, and I just put it aside because it was a standalone kind of thing. But I’m going to try to write that as well, which might be good for me, because if one’s too heavy. So that I’m putting out if I put out this book that I want to write, I also have a rom.com that I can put out.
Sara Rosett [00:05:35]:
Yeah. And even though you’re going against the expectations, you have a book, it’s like the book of your heart that you want to write, and you know that it’s not going to fit in these certain categories. So it’s not like you’re going into it blind, you know, and you’re doing it because you want to do it. And I think there’s books that we all have to write like that, that maybe they’re not going to earn. Like, if you tweaked them or did something different, they might earn more. But you want to write them the way you want the story to go, and that’s okay.
Jami Albright [00:06:08]:
Yeah.
Sara Rosett [00:06:08]:
Sometimes you have to do that.
Jami Albright [00:06:10]:
Yeah. So we’ll see. Also, I am watching Invasion on Apple TV.
Sara Rosett [00:06:18]:
Okay.
Jami Albright [00:06:19]:
Oh, my gosh. Have you watched this? The writing is so good. The two female actresses, actors are amazing. And it’s like their characters have agency. Like their characters, they have real purpose and are kind of the heroes of this story in a lot of ways. There are two seasons well, there’s a season and a half. I binged season one, and then the parts season two until I had to catch up and then wait a week. But it’s really good if you have Apple TV, it’s worth a watch.
Sara Rosett [00:07:01]:
It’s really good. I don’t think I’ve heard anybody talk about it
Jami Albright [00:07:05]:
I know, but it’s really good.
Sara Rosett [00:07:08]:
I will look for it. I will have to get apple TV again because I turned it off after Ted Lasso was over.
Jami Albright [00:07:15]:
Me too. So anyway, it’s good but that’s all I have on mean, you know just my normal.
Sara Rosett [00:07:25]:
Yeah, me too. Like all this travel makes it hard to be in a consistent routine and stuff.
Jami Albright [00:07:31]:
Well, and then one thing, I am so much better and have been like, okay, I think I’m ready to write. And then Tuesday was my sister’s birthday and Sunday is the anniversary of when she died. So it’s kind of like I’m ready. Oh no, I’m not.
Sara Rosett [00:07:56]:
Yeah, because all that brings back a lot of the thoughts and emotions and you can’t just go on without kind of marking those days somehow.
Jami Albright [00:08:08]:
And I’m going to stay with my mom for a couple of days just because my dad is out of town for a couple of days and I just don’t want her to be by herself and so I’m going to stay with her for a couple of days and then I’ll go home. But yeah, just when you think, okay, I’m good. Maybe I’m not as good as I thought but it’s okay.
Sara Rosett [00:08:35]:
Well, thinking about these books and talking about what you’re going to write, you sound like you’re more interested in writing and ready to get back to it. So I think that’s a good thing. And those books, it’s not like you have to this is the thing we’ve learned the gold rush is over and it’s not like you have to get these books out right now. You want to take your time and make sure they’re the best they can be and then release them whenever you’re ready. It’s not like we’re on a timeline. I mean we put ourselves on a timeline but as far as the market goes, it’s not like we’re going to have an advantage the sooner we get them out. Because.
Jami Albright [00:09:19]:
I said this when she was sick and after she passed away that I don’t regret any words that I didn’t write while I was there. And if I’m honest, I don’t really regret any words I haven’t written this past year because I needed that time. And while it’s still stressful, there are things in my mind has played some tricks on me about my validity in this business. But really and truly, if I step back and look at it objectively, I don’t regret this. It was what was best for me. It was what was best for my family and really and truly, that’s what matters. Good and writing books for our readers who are important to us is good. But nothing trumps family for me personally, right?
Sara Rosett [00:10:18]:
And it’s that perspective. That’s what we often forget to keep everything in perspective
Jami Albright [00:10:28]:
And not just family. But my mental and emotional health, that’s paramount because if I’m not good, then nobody else around me is good because I have a strong personality.
Sara Rosett [00:10:42]:
No.
Jami Albright [00:10:45]:
But we should get on with everything. Yeah.
Sara Rosett [00:10:48]:
Okay. Well, we do have a new supporter this week. We’ve got Bonnie Hardy.
Jami Albright [00:10:52]:
Yeah, Bonnie.
Sara Rosett [00:10:54]:
Yeah, we know Bonnie. She’s great, and she used the Little bookstack emoji, and we’re just so thankful for everyone who is supporting the podcast and has been for a while. It really helps us want to continue to do this, and it shows us that you’re interested in the podcast going on. So we like that, and thank you. Yeah. And if you want to become a supporter, you can go to Wishidknownforwriters.com/Support and sign up there. And we will be having a supporter chat coming up. I believe it’s October 15, right?
Jami Albright [00:11:29]:
It is, yes.
Sara Rosett [00:11:31]:
Okay, so we will put a post in the group about with the link, and please let us know you all what you want to talk about. Do you want to have a guest? Do you have specific questions you’d like to talk to us about? Please let us know.
Jami Albright [00:11:47]:
We would love yeah. Okay.
Sara Rosett [00:11:51]:
All right. Well, let’s get into talking about just these common issues that Jamie sees over and over again. So let’s start first, and</>
Do you want to describe kind of what you do with authors?
Jami Albright [00:12:05]:
What I i don’t do what people would think conventional coaching is. It’s more consulting. It’s a one or two time call, and we discuss issues that are really pressing for the author. I offer a 1 hour call, and then they have access to me if they have follow up questions or a lot of times, we’ll discuss things next steps, and they’ll do those next steps and send them to me and let me look at them and stuff. And then there’s a follow up call that’s included with that if they need it. But that’s on the author to get back with me on. If they don’t feel like they need it, then that’s fine. If they want it six months later, that’s fine, too.
Sara Rosett [00:13:04]:
Okay.
Jami Albright [00:13:04]:
That’s what I do. We just talk through those issues that are really pressing on them, making them feel stuck, making them feel overwhelmed, maybe.
Sara Rosett [00:13:20]:
So a sounding board?
Jami Albright [00:13:24]:
Yeah. And me being an objective set of eyes to come in and say, okay, this is what I see. And also, some authors just need to know, is it time to take the next step? It’s time to level up and go a little harder on either books or ads or whatever. As I’ve said before, I know a thing or two about a thing or two. Just because I don’t rapid release and I don’t like that doesn’t mean I don’t know about it. And I understand the concepts that I don’t generally employ sometimes.
Sara Rosett [00:14:14]:
Yeah. And we’ve talked to so many people on the podcast, and, you know, so many authors and are connected with so many people, you kind of have a really good feeling of how the industry is going and what’s working and what’s not and what’s hot and what’s new and all that. So definitely someone who can speak to different authors. It’s not like you are just talking to one type of author.
Jami Albright [00:14:40]:
Right, and if I don’t know something, I’ll go ask the person that I know that and I’m real clear with that about that. With people I’m like, oh, let me check with so and so and then I’ll get back with or whatever.
Sara Rosett [00:14:54]:
Yeah, well, so I guess the next question is
Who can you help?
Jami Albright [00:14:59]:
Well, my ego would say anyone.
Sara Rosett [00:15:04]:
And you could probably provide help for pretty much anyone on these different topics. But there are probably people that are more specialized that you could help. Right?
Jami Albright [00:15:13]:
Right. I think for me personally, it’s either the newer author who has no books to one book out, or the author that’s been doing it a while and isn’t really seeing any financial advancement or they did and then they got stuck and now they don’t know what to do. Those are probably the people I can help the most. The problem is those people really aren’t making a lot of money or any. Right. So that’s why I’m really conscious of keeping my rates personally, my rates affordable, because I want people to be able to do it. And sometimes people reach out and ask me how much it is and what I offer and they’re like, I can’t do that right now. But a couple of months later they come back and say, hey, I can do it now certainly I understand that as the woman who sold plasma to pay for edits, having to hustle and do things on the side to make extra money, to be able to afford services that I thought were necessary, I get it.
Jami Albright [00:16:31]:
So I’m not offended if people reach out and just say, no, I can’t do that, or that’s out of my price range. I am not offended at all. So I get it. I totally get it.
Sara Rosett [00:16:42]:
And there’s a lot of things that you have to cover, especially when you’re first starting out, like your cover and your editing and stuff, and you have to juggle and figure out what’s going to be best. And it might be best to talk to you first. Other times it might be best to try some things and then come to you later.
Jami Albright [00:17:07]:
Usually when people reach out to me, they reach out to me with a few of the questions or a little background if I think, hey, it’s not time to talk to me yet. I’m happy to tell people that, come back in six months or come back in a year when you’re finished with this book. And then also I happily refer them to David Goghren’s free course, to podcast and stuff like that, so they can get some knowledge free and not feel so I guess overwhelmed overwhelm is a big thing.
Sara Rosett [00:17:49]:
Well, that’s great. And there are a lot of really good free resources and podcasts and yeah, sometimes you can probably start with the free things and then come back right later.
Jami Albright [00:18:00]:
Right.
Sara Rosett [00:18:02]:
Well, what do you wish you’d known about consulting when you started?
A favorite question?
Jami Albright [00:18:10]:
I think I wish I had known how precious some things are to authors, I guess because I was willing to from the beginning of my writing career because I knew I didn’t know anything when I went to that first critique group meeting. I was willing to do or change whatever I needed to, to make this work. But there are people that are a bit precious about things. Most people are like, oh no, I’ll do it. But there are those people that are kind of precious and it’s just hard for them to hear a few things and I hadn’t counted on that. And I think because of that, maybe I should have maybe changed my approach in the beginning. You got to change that cover. It’s like let’s talk about your cover. Putting things back on them to go research so that they can come to the conclusion that maybe their blurb, their cover, the fact that they’re not editing or whatever is not a best practice.
Sara Rosett [00:19:28]:
Right.
Jami Albright [00:19:29]:
And I try to do that now, but in the beginning I might not have.
Sara Rosett [00:19:33]:
Yeah, and I was going to say this. You are honest. Like I’ll have questions and say, hey, what do you think about this? And you give an honest opinion. You’re not going to be around the bush or try and be nice and say, oh, this will probably work. When in your heart you think it won’t, you will couch it in nicer language than that, than like, oh, this is terrible. You won’t say that, but you don’t pull punches. You’re going to be honest.
Jami Albright [00:19:58]:
Well, I mean, they’re paying me not to. I know that’s really how I look at it. But in the beginning I didn’t really realize that. I think that I’ve come to the conclusion that you really have to kind of well, first of all, you can lead a horse to water as Bill saying you can’t make them drink, but you really need to lead as well as tell, you know what I’m saying? Help them come to that conclusion and stuff. Like I said, the majority of people, they’re like, whatever, you let’s try it, or whatever. But there are just people that are precious and it’s not just about covers and blurbs. It’s about kind of everything.
Sara Rosett [00:20:39]:
Everything.
Jami Albright [00:20:43]:
Probably because they spent so much time trying to come up with the brand or a title or whatever and it was a lot of work. And honestly, covers are the last things. Unless it’s a really bad cover. They’re the last things I say try because that costs you money.
Sara Rosett [00:21:06]:
What is that? It’s called like the Sunk cost fallacy, I think, where you’ve invested money and time. I’ve heard that and I was like, that’s such an interesting term. Like you’ve invested money and time and you don’t want to change things because you’re like, oh, well, then I will have wasted all of that money and time. Whereas it might be better to go ahead and change things and even though you’ve lost money or time, yeah, you can make more profit later.
Jami Albright [00:21:33]:
It’s emotional capital too, because you’ve just invested so much of your emotion into writing the book and this plan that so many of us have and this goal of writing full time and being I get a lot of pushback on that too. Because maybe it’s hypocritical of me bit. But I will tell people maybe you shouldn’t think about being a full time author. Not because you can’t be, but because it’s hard. Like if you have a job you like or really don’t have a huge aversion to or you can do something that you would like and write, you should probably do that just because it’s good for your mental health. I didn’t do that. But as we’ve discussed before and we discussed it last week, I’m now unemployable.
Sara Rosett [00:22:34]:
That is a problem,
Jami Albright [00:22:37]:
I have painted myself in a corner. But if there are other people, there’s a lot of pressure we put on ourselves for that. That doesn’t need to be there really. That should not even be in the equation, in my opinion.
Sara Rosett [00:22:52]:
Well. And a lot of us, it’s a dream because we feel like and it’s unrealistic because we have this image that, oh, I will write all day. Because when you’re working 40 hours a week or whatever or taking care of your kids and working part time job and trying to write, it seems like, oh, if I didn’t have this one thing, this job or whatever, it’d be so much easier. I thought that too, with like my kids were little, I was like, oh, once they get older, it’ll be so much easier. And it is easier in a way, but the things just change. You don’t have to take care of them, give them their bath at night and make sure they do their homework, but you’re doing other things like going on field trips or going on college visits and things, it’s like things don’t really like we’re unrealistic it’s that perspective thing. We think it’s going to be so much better and in reality, maybe it won’t be. So I think that’s wise to maybe make sure people really think things through.
Jami Albright [00:23:50]:
I remember full time and I made a big post about it, of course, in Alessandra Tory’s group and her advice to me was however many hours you work at your job, if you have an eight hour job, you’re not working that whole time. You know what I’m saying? I was working a part time job. Then devote that much time to your writing and I was like 4 hours a day, 5 hours a day, no problem.
Sara Rosett [00:24:22]:
Yeah we all think that.
Jami Albright [00:24:23]:
Yeah, that was not the case y’all I know, so yeah, it’s just things like that.
Sara Rosett [00:24:32]:
Yeah, it’s true. And writing is I feel like it’s like people say it’s a muscle. Like you get used to it. And if you’re used to concentrating and being super focused and getting so many x number of words in 30 minutes or an hour, and then you suddenly have four or 5 hours, you’re not going to have that same focus unless you can create those same parameters in your mind. There’s a whole bunch of mental stuff going on that you have to work through so yeah, there’s some things to think about with going full time or quitting your job. All good points. Okay, well let’s get back to our questions.
What do most people come to you or why do most people come to you?
Jami Albright [00:25:16]:
I think just they don’t know what the next step is really? I think I can help with next steps best, better than anything. While you can’t see it in your own career, in life, it’s easy to see it with other people. Me, it is, I can just see it and because of my high communication and stuff I am able to communicate that to other people so yeah, that’s mostly why people come to me.
Sara Rosett [00:25:58]:
Right. And you were talking about overwhelm earlier, and there’s so many things to do. And so if you have somebody coming along saying, okay, don’t worry about this right now, just focus on finishing the book or getting your edits complete, that can be very helpful, because then you’re not trying to do, like, seven things at once and not doing any of them very well.
Jami Albright [00:26:25]:
No, I was just going to say that’s true. Because I do get a lot the emails I get, when we’ve set up a call, I ask them to send me the things they want to talk about and they’re these long emails and they’re just everything. And I get it. You can’t see the forest for the trees. So a lot of times we’ll say, okay, let’s put these things on hold and these are the things we’re going to work on. Let me know how that goes. And then we can.
Sara Rosett [00:26:55]:
Valuable to talk to another author about that because my family, they love me, but they don’t really care the detailed specifics. So another author is going to be a better person to talk to you about that than your spouse. Yeah well
When is a good time for someone to seek services from someone like you? From outside help?
Jami Albright [00:27:19]:
Yeah, not me personally but just outside help. I think it’s when you’re kind of frozen you don’t know what to do next or when you’re doing the same things you’ve always done and they’re not really working anymore. They did work at one time. Now they’re not working. Those are good times and in the beginning, so you don’t get off on the wrong foot, but that’s harder.
Sara Rosett [00:27:53]:
Okay, well, I think those points are good points, and we all sometimes just need to talk with somebody else and figure out the best thing to do. And those are like you’re at decision points. So that’s good. You listed out some of the most common issues that people bring up. Do you just want to run through those and we can talk about each one? How do you want to do yeah.
Jami Albright [00:28:18]:
We’Ll just run through so the most common issues I get are the first number one by far is how can I make more money? That is the biggest pain point for a lot of people. And unfortunately, I can’t guarantee you’re going to make more money, though a lot of people do make more money after they speak with me because they have a plan. The problem is a lot of people just don’t have a plan. Christina Hobland, she wouldn’t mind me saying this because she’s told me did. We actually did a longer thing because she had a release coming up. So we did things up to the release, but things turned around dramatically for her after we talked about ad copy and we talked about release strategy and stuff like that. That’s great. But I think that if well, the money thing is the biggest thing. That’s what people just want. They want to make more money. And I get it. I do too.
Sara Rosett [00:29:31]:
Yeah, that’s like bottom line for most of us, we write because we love it, but most indie authors aren’t doing it as a hobby. We want to make it profitable. Yeah, that makes sense.
Jami Albright [00:29:45]:
The second reason is just overwhelm anything from the basic publishing info to when do I start a store? We’ve talked about that. That is just so hard because we are bombarded with information daily, online, on podcast, on YouTube, just things, oh, this is the next big thing and you don’t want to be left out, but it may not be time for you to do that right now. And guess what? There’ll be another next big thing that you may be ready to do.
Sara Rosett [00:30:27]:
Yeah. So how do you help people figure this out? Is it like on a case by case basis?
Jami Albright [00:30:34]:
Yeah, because it depends on where they’re at in their publishing journey. If someone comes to me and says, I’ve put one book out or I haven’t put a book out yet, but I’m going to put out two after the first year, how do I go about setting up a store? I’m like, is a store really what you need to do right now? Let’s back up a little bit and look at why you would have a store and then what you need to do between right now and when you put those books out to make sure those books have the best chance to do well.
Sara Rosett [00:31:17]:
Right.
Jami Albright [00:31:18]:
I’m not sure a store is that thing. If it is, then we can talk about that. But let’s talk about that and then depending on where they are, we take things off their plate that really don’t need to be there right now. We just move them to the side. We can come to them or they can come back to them. But taking things off people’s plates is a huge burden lifter because they can’t see it clearly enough to know to stay and what needs to go.
Sara Rosett [00:31:54]:
Yeah, and a lot of us do. Need to just yeah, a couple of. Things and then talking it through with someone can help you decide what the best ones are to remove or put on hold or whatever, however you want to call it.
Jami Albright [00:32:10]:
That’s correct. The next one is series. Well, these are just topics. It doesn’t mean that it’s not like in number the first two. Those are the biggest things. But then people also want help with series creation or should I take what the series I have and make another series? And we just talked through that. Like, what are the best ways to do that? How can we take what you have right now and expand it so that you have like a series within a series, you’re creating a world, those sorts of things. Those have been some common questions that have come to me.
Sara Rosett [00:32:58]:
Yeah. And that’s always I love that. Creating different ways for people to find you. It’s like if you have a plan and you’re like, okay, we’re going to write this series and then we’re going to connect it to this other one. You can increase your read through from one series to another or do ways to pull people into a new series that I didn’t even think about when I was first starting out.
Jami Albright [00:33:25]:
Right. Multiple entry points into your catalog, basically. And then with that comes the do I need a pen name? We go through that and if you do need a pen name, what’s the best way to do a pen name? Do you need two mailing list?
Sara Rosett [00:33:49]:
So many questions on that because there is a lot of work with creating a whole nother profile for yourself everywhere. So yeah, that’s not something to be taken lightly.
Jami Albright [00:34:02]:
No, not at all. And then another big one is newsletter building. Like how do I build a newsletter? How do I get a newsletter? You talk about building a newsletter before you release. What’s the best way to do that? How do I get sign ups from the back of the book? Those of things and we just go through different things. And really what’s your strength? What are you best at? If you can crank out a story really fast, then yeah, create something that you can build a newsletter with before you launch. If that’s not really your strength or. What you can do, then just do deleted scenes or second epilogues in the back of the book and making sure your back matter then in the back of your book pulls people through to your newsletter and your next book. Those are big things that we want to make sure we’re doing, because if not, we’re losing people, right?
Sara Rosett [00:35:15]:
And you brainstorm with people for things like this because we’ve talked about there’s all kinds of different things you can do. You don’t have to write a short story or a novella or something because you could do recipes or a map of your town. There’s all kinds of things that don’t involve maybe new words, but just different types of content. So I’m sure you guys have come up with some cool and interesting things.
Jami Albright [00:35:43]:
We have. And like, I was talking to someone and we were talking about her newsletter, and she’s like, I just don’t know what to say. And I always feel like I’m being really Silly. And I was like, then get your PA to write a little thing in the newsletter about your books that are on sale or that they should read, or have you read this one. Get somebody else to do it or do it under somebody else’s name or.
Sara Rosett [00:36:15]:
Create like a character that will speak for you or your books. If you wrote Cozy’s, you could have the nosy old lady who writes a newsletter about things that are going on in the world and she has maybe just a little section in the newsletter, but it would give you a place to start, right? Something that is not about you. It would help take the spotlight off of you.
Jami Albright [00:36:41]:
Yeah. So we just brainstorm about that. That’s what I love most about these sessions and it’s what I love most about writing in general. I love brainstorming. I love that whole concept of people just sitting around throwing out ideas. And some are really bad, and I’ve thrown out some really bad ideas, but then somebody takes just a sliver of that bad idea and makes something amazing with their idea. And I love that. I love that whole process.
Jami Albright [00:37:31]:
Then the next thing is like evaluating their Amazon sales page.
Sara Rosett [00:37:37]:
Okay?
Jami Albright [00:37:38]:
So that includes everything from the Cover, the blurb, the look inside, their A plus content if they have it, advising them to put A plus content on, even though I have no idea how much that works. But it seems to be very common now. And so you should probably have your sales page look like other people’s sales page.
Sara Rosett [00:38:08]:
It’s one of those things that probably can’t hurt. Correct.
Jami Albright [00:38:15]:
The thing is that I’m not great at blurbs. I have people help me with my blurbs. But I do think you can create a blurb with a couple of people. So I’m just a voice, but also, like coming up with taglines for the books and stuff. I’m pretty good at that.
Sara Rosett [00:38:38]:
You are excellent at that. Excellent.
Jami Albright [00:38:41]:
Thank you. But the big thing is that you just want something that’s going to because they do all look the same. You need something that’s going to grab your reader and not let go of. Like make them ask a question like, why is she running from a hot rock star? You know, and then that’s really good. And a lot of times you can take that kind of tagline and use it with your ads and stuff. That we can do.
Sara Rosett [00:39:20]:
Well, I was going to ask what are the most common thing mistakes that you see on Amazon sales pages?
Jami Albright [00:39:27]:
Very long blurbs. Very long blurb. People putting like any awards or even USA Today or any of that at the top of your blurb. That is valuable real estate. And nobody cares if you’ve won an award. They don’t really care if you’re USA Today bestseller in that. That doesn’t tell them if this book is going to be any good.
Sara Rosett [00:39:57]:
It doesn’t tell Them anything about the book.
Jami Albright [00:40:00]:
And that real estate is super valuable. So that real estate should be all about the book. Like either the trope or the hook. Really. In my opinion, it should be the hook. The hook of the book. It should be the hook because you want people to not be able to scroll away from your page without clicking. That’s super important.
Sara Rosett [00:40:32]:
And there are other places you can put awards and all that stuff. There are places on your page like the editorial or from the publisher. You can put stuff like that in there to kind of build authority. But yeah, you want people to be curious about the book before they go down and see the other stuff.
Jami Albright [00:40:50]:
Yeah, because a lot of times people don’t even read the whole blurb and.
Sara Rosett [00:40:54]:
You can’t even see a lot of it. Usually the first couple of lines, if.
Jami Albright [00:40:59]:
You make that tagline or that hook bolded, then that draws the eye and then the look inside, they don’t end on a hook. And you want to even if it means it’s less than 10%, you want to end up some kind of hook because you want people to want to know more.
Sara Rosett [00:41:28]:
Yeah.
Jami Albright [00:41:30]:
And then of course, covers are always or not always. Covers are an issue. And right now covers are all over the place.
Sara Rosett [00:41:38]:
They are.
Jami Albright [00:41:40]:
Mine are all over the place.
Sara Rosett [00:41:43]:
Well, things are changing flux and so.
Jami Albright [00:41:47]:
It’S kind of hard to know. But if you have an obviously not on brand cover, then there’s an issue. I mean, there’s just a disconnect again. And we’re going to talk about branding. Did we talk about branding? No, I guess we branding. But branding, as I said before, is the promise you make to your reader. So does that cover meet the promise? I mean, does that cover tell the reader what they need to know about what’s inside that book and if it doesn’t, then we got to fix that. Does your blurb do that? Does your A plus content do that? I mean, if it doesn’t, those are the things that have to be fixed because if you want people to click on your book and you want to build interest and excitement because a confused reader is a reader that just clicks away. There are too many books. There are just too many books.
Sara Rosett [00:42:53]:
Yeah, and now we have so many books that it’s like if you really only want to read like say, hockey romance, you could do that. And if your book is close to that, but not quite, or if your book is that and you don’t make it clear, people are going to be like, oh, I’m going to go get this other one that I know is a hockey romance, right? Like if your blurb is all about something else, emphasizes something else, then you’re probably not going to get that reader. Who I don’t have just one specific thing I read, but I do know oh, I want to read a country house mystery set in England. Or I want to read a book about travel set on an ocean liner or something. We can search for that now. There are plenty of books now where we can find exactly what we want. So we need to make sure it’s very clear what our book is and what interest or I don’t know what you call it, like what your reader wants. It’s very clear.
Jami Albright [00:43:56]:
Yeah. I thought you were about to say you were looking for hockey romance and.Sara Rosett [00:44:01]:
You’Re like, oh, I got some recommendations for you.
Jami Albright [00:44:03]:
Yeah.
Sara Rosett [00:44:04]:
I was like, well, instead of using Cozy Mystery, which I use all the time.
Jami Albright [00:44:11]:
Yeah, we just don’t want the reader to be confused. I would say another mistake people make, or not mistake, but where they put energy, where they don’t need it is like their website. I think you need a website, I believe you need a website but it can be pretty basic. It just needs your name, a place to sign up for your email, preferably you’re giving away something free and that needs to be at the top. And then your books like link to whatever retailer you want to send them to. That’s really it. And then the mistake I see people make is putting this big about me thing at the top of the page. I mean, I did it, we all do it at the top of the page instead of that link where they can sign up for your email. The about me can be on a separate page, it can be at the bottom of the first page, but it does not need to be in that valuable real estate at the top of the page. You just don’t need to spend a lot of mental energy on our website, especially in the beginning.
Sara Rosett [00:45:37]:
And I think that’s hard to remember, especially if you’re using a template and designing stuff yourself, because they put in so many options that you have all these things that you could do. And really you probably need to strip that down and just use some really basic things. You don’t have to have all the bells and whistles on your author website, especially in the beginning. And I think the main thing people go to author website for author websites for is to find a list of books and to find them in order and to find out when the new book is coming out right. And to maybe sign up for more information. So those are the main things.
Jami Albright [00:46:14]:
Yeah, a contact link so that when they love your book, they can contact you. Or if they want to make your book into a Netflix series, they have somebody.
Sara Rosett [00:46:24]:
That’s right. I mean, we kind of laugh about that, but that’s really true. If people want, like, translation, they want to do translations. If you only have your books on Amazon and you don’t have a way for people to contact you, like, if you don’t have a website, how are they going to get in touch with you?
Jami Albright [00:46:42]:
Yeah, so it is necessary. It’s just not necessary to put all this energy into, especially when we have limited time and the books and the presentation of the books to the reader are really, in my opinion, the most important thing.
Sara Rosett [00:47:01]:
Yeah, I agree.
Jami Albright [00:47:03]:
Another thing people want help with is launch help, which, since I haven’t launched a book in two years, I’m sure people are like, what do you know? I almost cussed.
Sara Rosett [00:47:15]:
But there are certain principles about launching stay the same, right?
Jami Albright [00:47:19]:
Yes. And again, I’m not so egotistical that I wouldn’t find out, but there are just things that are good practices when launching. And just having a plan, any plan, is better than just throwing it up, unless it’s a later book in the series, or you’re not going to start pushing that book until you get more books out. I get that. I understand that. But honestly, even if I were wide, I cannot see a world where I wouldn’t make as big a deal as possible about a launched book, a new book. I just can’t. Well, I guess because for me, not releasing as often as people, most people, I need that book to make splash. I want that book splash. I don’t even need it. I want that. If you’re wide, it’s a little bit different. I get that. But I still feel like we want our people to know. If nothing else, we make a big deal in our newsletter. If nothing else, we try to get that book in front of as many like minded readers as ours as we can.
Sara Rosett [00:48:46]:
Because how many times have I sent out a newsletter and get a reply back from people saying, oh, I’m so looking forward to the next book and blah, blah, blah series. And I’m like, oh, well, that’s been out and here’s the link. And so obviously you can’t reach everybody with all the news. But you do want to make it a splash, like you’re saying. And for a later book in the series, maybe it’s not as big a splash as first book. Especially in Mystery, there are certain series that certain types of series that people are going to start with book one, and if they haven’t read four, five and six, they’re not going to care about seven. But you still want to make it so that your readers who are looking forward to that know about it. You definitely want that word out, right?
Jami Albright [00:49:42]:
I have had people come to me, and this is something if you’re wanting to level up, they have a really successful series and they have a spin off series or they have whatever they want to know, or they have a series that’s done well, but they think they can do better with this new series that ties in or whatever. And they want to know a budget. What’s a budget? What’s a good budget? Launch. I can help with that. I listen to enough, I know enough to know that. And most people who have their finger on the pulse of this business in your genre will know that. So it’s not just me, but asking other people about that. Because you really do want to know what’s realistic, right? Because when I launch, I have three kind of three goals. One is just your basic goal. I just want it to do the basic stuff like rank and money, and then I have what’s realistic based on the money I’ve spent and the time I’ve spent in my email list and the amount of publicity I’ve done, what is realistic. And like my last book, I hit that 100% knowing I had a little less money to deal with, and it was the second book in a series, hadn’t really pushed it as hard as I did the first one, what was realistic? And I hit that. But then there’s the oh my gosh, the dream way more than I expected goal. And I’ve hit that a few times. So having those three things set in front of you, and I have it written down so that I don’t forget it, because it is easy to get lost when you’re launching in what’s a reasonable, realistic goal, and then what is above that, anything above that goal gravy. So just keeping that in mind helps.
Sara Rosett [00:52:06]:
And that’s probably really smart for your mental health, too. It is, because, you know, okay, I’ve achieved step one, and if we can get step two, the middle part, that’s great. If we go to three, that’s awesome. And just bonus. And then you’re not always striving for something that maybe you can’t reach because it would keep your goals realistic. As you can tell, I have never launched this way. I just do very basic launches. I should probably do a consulting for my next launch.
Jami Albright [00:52:45]:
I think you do okay.
Sara Rosett [00:52:46]:
It does all right. Yeah. Building on all my other books, I rely heavily on my newsletter. I don’t do many ads. But you do ad copy help, too, right?
Jami Albright [00:52:58]:
I do ad copy help. Ads change so much that I really have sort of like the basic stuff I can tell people and help people with. But I am not an ad expert. I mean, I’ve been able to run them and do very well with them, but I would not feel right if somebody was just coming to me for ads help. I would tell them they need to go find somebody else because that is not where my expertise lies. But I can help them write ad copy that will hook the reader, that will make them curious. And I love that. It’s been super fulfilling to hear people or see somebody’s ads that are doing well afterwards.
Jami Albright [00:53:45]:
And you’re like, yes, that hook was great. That one you needed, or images or things like that. Some people, probably myself included, hate testing ads. And while I don’t like it, I know how important it is. So just talking to them about that and helping them to kind of understand that testing is really important. You will lose a lot of money if you do not do that.
Sara Rosett [00:54:18]:
Right.
Jami Albright [00:54:19]:
But mostly it’s ad copy that I can help people with.
Sara Rosett [00:54:22]:
Yeah. And that’s so hard to do because usually we’re so close to the book that it’s hard to pull out the tiny little catchy phrases that will pull people in. Sometimes it’s so helpful to have somebody else just even just throw out some ideas, like you were talking about earlier. Just brainstorming some different ideas.
Jami Albright [00:54:42]:
Yeah. Blurb Help is the last one, and we talked about it a little bit on the sales page. But one thing, blurbs are changing. They’re just changing. Especially in romance, they’re changing.
Sara Rosett [00:55:00]:
What are you seeing? Because romance always leads the way with everything.
Jami Albright [00:55:03]:
Yeah. They’re shorter. They’re usually from one only the character that has the most growth or the most to lose. It’s usually from their point of view, not both points of view.
Sara Rosett [00:55:19]:
So they’re not doing, like, her point and then his point.
Jami Albright [00:55:24]:
Correct.
Sara Rosett [00:55:24]:
That’s how they used to be. Right?
Jami Albright [00:55:25]:
Yeah. And then also, like, a lot of them, you don’t even know their names. You just know this and she’s that because readers don’t care.
Sara Rosett [00:55:40]:
They care until they’re into the book. Right?
Jami Albright [00:55:42]:
Yeah. They care about the hook. They want to know, Is this book going to push the buttons for me? And that’s what we need to tell them in our blurbs, not even the story. We just need them to know that this book is going to check all their boxes for a book that they’re going to enjoy.
Sara Rosett [00:56:08]:
Yeah, that’s interesting. And I had wondered about the dual POV blurbs, because that was how I could always tell it was a romance. Like, if there’s books that I was like, oh, this might have some mystery in it, I might like it, and then I’d be like, oh, it’s got two POVs in the blurb. Probably more romance than mystery. So that’s interesting that that’s changing.
Jami Albright [00:56:32]:
It’s changing now. It’s not changing. I think Ku authors are employing this a little more right now, but I see it everywhere, too, just encouraging readers to do some research. Look at that top 50 in your genre, in your subcategory, in your categories. Look and see what they’re doing and do that, but with your own flair and your own twist. So that’s really what I do, and I think that that’s what a lot of other people do, and they just give a fresh set of eyes to something that they’re not emotionally tied to.
Sara Rosett [00:57:18]:
Right. And that’s huge because we’ve invested time and it is difficult to step back and be objective. I think that’s very important. Yeah. Where can people get in touch with you?
Jami Albright [00:57:31]:
Well, they can go to my website, Jamialbright.com, and there’s a button for Authorservices, or it’s Jamialbright.com/Authorservices. Okay, cool. You can reach out to me there. I’m not opposed just to answer a few basic questions, but at no charge. If you think you need something longer or bigger, we can set that up or we can talk about it. And again, I give a discount to podcast listeners. And yeah, we’ve talked about Erin Wright. She does consulting for authors who are going wide.
Jami Albright [00:58:19]:
There are other services. Becca Mysore, the Consulting. And, you know, look back at our other episodes, because I might not be the right person for you, but we have a lot of other guests who offer similar services. Claire Taylor. She does, yeah.
Sara Rosett [00:58:45]:
And if you feel like somebody else would be more helpful to someone, you’ll refer them.
Jami Albright [00:58:50]:
Absolutely. Absolutely.
Sara Rosett [00:58:52]:
Yeah. Jami knows everyone, basically, so she can put you in touch with whoever you need. Yeah. All right. Well, I think this has been really good. I think it’ll be really helpful because we talked about things that people can look for themselves first and check, and then if they need extra help, they can get in touch with you. And I think it’ll be really good.
Jami Albright [00:59:16]:
And this has been fun, and I hope you all have a great day and a great week.
Sara Rosett [00:59:24]:
Yeah, and we’ll have those links in the show notes, and those will be at WishidKnownforwriters.com. And you can find the link to Jamie’s author services there. And thanks to Alexa Larberg for editing and producing the podcast and to Adriel Wiggins for helping us with all the admin. Thanks, everybody. We’ll see you next week.
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