The BookFunnel Podcast

0:00: There's a tool there where all that your reader has to do is download your book file, but then use that tool to upload it, and then it will go to every device listed on there.
0:10: It's just fundamental to your role as an author to be found because, you know, it's a place where you've got full control, your house, your rules, so you can do what the hell you.
0:20: Like, and it is a hub for you to send readers to do so many things.
0:25: Some authors are a little skittish about that.
0:27: If readers share the link to your free book, you should take it as a compliment because they want to share it with somebody like, hey, this was really good.
0:33: You should check it out.
0:35: Hey folks, welcome to the Book Funnel podcast, where indie authors get real world advice on writing, publishing.
0:41: And growing a career on their own terms.
0:43: Whether you're just starting out or you're deep into your author journey, we're here to help you build your readership, boost your book sales, and connect with your audience.
0:51: Each episode, we aim to bring you insights from authors, experts, and industry insiders who have been there, done that, and then some.
0:58: My name is Jack.
0:59: I am our lead author sports specialist here at Book Funnel and your host for the Book Funnel podcast.
1:04: Today, I am joined by my cos.
1:06: a special co-host today at our lead reader support specialist is joining me today.
1:13: And our guest for this episode of the podcast, Stu at digital Authors Toolkit.
1:19: Stu, I want to welcome you to the podcast.
1:21: Sir, good to have you here.
1:23: For those in our audience who might not be familiar with you and your work, just really quickly, let us know what you do.
1:31: So, I run a digital agency.
1:32: Hello, by the way, Jack and Kat.
1:34: Thank you so much for having me on Book Funnel podcast.
1:36: I use BookFunnel pretty much daily, so I'm a huge ambassador and a fanboy of, of your service, but, so it's great to be here.
1:44: So yeah, I run a digital agency in the UK working with authors across the world, creating online presence.
1:50: Basically, our core product is websites, but we do lots of other stuff which we're going to talk about today a little bit.
1:56: And yes, made over 350.
1:58: the website so far and the highest rated web designer on Reedy.
2:03: So yeah, right.
2:04: And, and it's going to be an interesting conversation today.
2:08: We've had a whole bunch of different guests from different backgrounds and to be quite honest, most of our guests have been authors.
2:14: But it's always fun when we have somebody on the podcast who's not an author, but is still in the industry and has some different insights and that sort of thing.
2:21: So really looking forward to kind of picking your brain.
2:25: On, on all of that.
2:26: Normally at the at the beginning of the podcast, Emma and Kelly are here and we kind of catch up on our creative projects, but since they're, since they're not, we, we will kind of forego that here and just dive right in to our first segment, which is our tips from the trenches segment in this segment.
2:42: We will share with you some tips related to writing, publishing, or what have you, as, as it pertains to self-publishing.
2:49: But even if you are a traditionally published author, these tips should be helpful to you.
2:54: Basically, if you're trying to grow your author business, some of these tips should be helpful, and I should note that We will have a variety of tips for you.
3:02: The tips are not always in the same theme, and we do not share our tips with each other ahead of time.
3:08: So, it will be a surprise if by some miracle we all have the same tip.
3:13: You know, we did not share it in advance.
3:15: I, I'll go ahead and go first, and this tip is on on writing, in particular motivation when it comes to writing.
3:22: Of course, the, the sort of meme, if you will, is that writers are perpetually in a state of writer's block or not writing as much as they should be be writing, right?
3:31: And anybody who's been a writer for any period of time, you, you've been there.
3:35: Once you've gotten through the honeymoon period, probably when you first started.
3:40: Writing, you probably hit a low, or a period of time where you stopped writing altogether, and you beat yourself up about it, and you feel guilty about it and feel like, oh, you know, I had all these goals in mind and I let it go.
3:52: The important thing that I've come to find out recently is that you need to understand what actually motivates you to write.
3:59: And the really like rose-tinted glasses answer is like, well, I write because I love to write, right?
4:06: I just enjoy.
4:07: I enjoy writing so much that it oozes out of me.
4:09: And while that's true for many people, I don't think that every author can say that that's enough to motivate them to like write and write the next book, you know, to meet all their goals, that is, which is to say if you have a rapid release strategy in mind, or you're trying to make money from your publishing.
4:26: I, I, I feel like, quite frankly, for most authors, that intrinsic motivation if I just like I just love to write, probably not.
4:34: Enough to get you across the finish line for those goals.
4:36: It's probably going to be enough to keep you writing over the course of your lifetime.
4:40: But if you're wanting to make money from it, and as I've encountered this myself, you're gonna come to a point where the writing stops for some reason, you lose motivation, and then you beat yourself up about it because you feel like, well, I'm supposed to just do this because I enjoy it, and there's this kind of cognitive dissonance where you're not meeting the expectations that you set for yourself.
5:00: So extrinsic.
5:01: Motivators are what my tip is.
5:04: Find something that's external that can motivate you, because that intrinsic motivation can only get you so far.
5:10: And maybe in an individual writing session, the intrinsic motivation takes over your joy for writing, but in terms of like having a publishing schedule and a plan of things that you like books you want to write this year, right?
5:21: Have something extrinsic that's outside of you, and honestly, outside of your control, that's going to motivate you.
5:28: To write.
5:29: So I'll give a few examples that could be sharing your writing with readers and creating some accountability to them, maybe updating a story in chapter form.
5:38: A lot of authors will do this with their newsletter.
5:40: Send your newsletter regular chapters of your current work in progress.
5:45: This can help motivate you.
5:46: If you have to send your newsletter next week, then you've got to have something ready to share with them.
5:50: Pre-orders, pre-orders, especially on sites like Amazon where you can set the to date well in advance and then you create a schedule for yourself and you can hold yourself accountable to that and that's motivating.
6:01: So that's my tip, right, which is just to say, I guess it's two parts.
6:04: Don't beat yourself up about it if the intrinsic motivation isn't enough, and create some motivator that's outside of yourself to help push you to accomplish your goals, right?
6:15: So that that's my, that's my tip for today.
6:18: Thanks, thank you.
6:19: Now who wants to go next?
6:21: I'd be happy to.
6:22: OK.
6:23: Go ahead, but then, then you can go Stu.
6:24: Go ahead.
6:25: OK, go ahead, Stu, that's fine.
6:26: So mine's about motivation and intrinsic, no, it's not.
6:31: I love it, I love it.
6:32: I love, I do love the the tip about pre-orders.
6:35: That that is a gold mine though.
6:36: People don't do forget how easy that is and how much that can help.
6:40: So that's a brilliant tip, and I do pass that on to all my authors.
6:43: So this is a bit of a weird tip really, but it's something that I love the idea of.
6:47: So I've worked with a lot of authors who write thrillers or or books that are based in a very.
6:52: Specific region of not usually the UK but sometimes in other places.
6:56: And a really nice thing to do, I think, is if you do mention any local landmarks, pubs, restaurants, anything like that in your books, and I have seen this done once, print off a copy of the book cover, put it in a nice little wooden frame, get a little thing, a plaque that says as men, you know, this, the pub, whatever, the dog's head, as mentioned in this book, and present it to them and they will love it and stick it.
7:21: Up on the wall.
7:22: So every person that goes in that pub, restaurant, shop, whatever it is, will see that book cover and think, that's cool.
7:28: I'll go and buy the book.
7:29: So it's excellent.
7:31: It's kind of off-page, really easy, but cheap guerrilla marketing, you know, and they love it.
7:37: Right, right.
7:38: I love that idea.
7:39: We've had a few authors on the podcast who, and one of them in particular, all of the location, I think some of the locations were fictional, but they were based on real places in the UK and Yeah, that especially when you have those, those, those, even those smaller communities.
7:55: Yeah.
7:56: And it's like, hey, we were in a book.
7:58: That's pretty neat.
7:59: You know, you get the community involved in it as well.
8:03: You might even get some press out of it, you know, right.
8:07: we've got a comedian over here called Alan Partridge, and he did a mockumentary walk around Norfolk, which is actually where I live, and he mentioned a few pubs, and I happened to go into one of the pubs, and there were there it was, the book cover on the wall, you know, as mentioned in Partridge's books.
8:23: , I've got another tip, so I'm gonna steal two, very quick one.
8:27: Go for it.
8:28: This may be blatantly obvious to everyone else, but it just struck me the other day.
8:31: I've heard authors talk about not being able to choose names for their characters.
8:34: They really struggle with coming up with either original or interesting names.
8:39: and I happened to be hanging out at a graveyard the other day, and there were hundreds of really interesting names on all these great, right, so you can use them cos they're not gonna moan, are they?
8:49: So.
8:50: You know, get a combination of first names and surnames or whatever, and you might grab yourself some really cool and unusual names that you wouldn't have necessarily thought of.
9:01: There you go.
9:02: No, that's, that's a good one.
9:04: That's a good one, right.
9:05: Now, the, the trick is if you write, I write in science fiction, so sometimes you do wind up having to dig for some of those really interesting ones, but actually I think it would still work, especially if you find.
9:17: There's there's all kinds of names that have been lost to time.
9:20: Exactly, that that just people don't name their kids that anymore.
9:25: Then yeah, that's a gold mine there.
9:27: That's a gold mine.
9:29: All right, Kat, thank you Pro, I'm guessing you probably have something, a tip that's like reader related for or reader support related for us.
9:36: I'm guessing it is, it's the rare reader support tip instead of author, but it does apply to authors whether you're self-published or going through, you know, a service if you're not so.
9:49: Directly through Amazon, you'll notice that a lot of readers might have problems getting their ebooks to Kindle because it is a multi-step process, and the only true 100% guaranteed unless there's a file problem way to make sure your readers get their books to their Kindle libraries is by going to Amazon.
10:10: Your suffixcom UK, whatever slash send to Kindle.
10:14: There's a tool there where all that your reader has to do is download your book file, then use that tool to upload it, and then it will go to every device listed on their Kindle registered on their Kindle account.
10:28: And a lot of people think that Just because they buy an ebook, it'll automatically port to their Kindle or Kindle app or, you know, even Apple Books app or, you know, other reading apps, but you do, if you're not selling directly through those app stores, then your readers will have to download the file and upload it to those, but we make it pretty easy with the app for users to use Book Funnel, but that's not even required for the most reliable.
10:56: Way to get books to Kindle that if you're not selling directly through Amazon.
11:00: So that's, that's my, that's my hot reader support tip is send your readers to Amazon.com or UK or whatever slash send to Kindle, and they can easily upload all of their books to their Kindle library right there.
11:13: Yep, yep.
11:14: And that that tool has been, it has really streamlined the process because it used to be a lot more complicated.
11:20: Yeah.
11:22: If I remember right, it's been a while since I've, I've been like in reader support a whole lot, but what I remember was, because I was at one point before I, I got moved over to author support, and I just remember things like being quite a bit more complex.
11:36: So it's, it's much more streamlined, which is great, but yeah, if you are delivering books for book fun.
11:41: just know that like the reader experience is a little, a little different.
11:44: And sometimes, sometimes readers, there's not usually a lot of friction when it when it comes to that, usually most readers like they figure it out.
11:52: But if it's their first time, there might be some questions or if they're not familiar with it.
11:57: So if nothing else, you can also send them to us.
12:01: And we can help them out as well.
12:03: You can always do that, to send them to help at BookFunnel.com, and we can help get them all sorted out.
12:09: So, well, there we go.
12:10: That's your tips from the trenches segment there.
12:13: Those are some, a good variety of tips there, I feel like.
12:16: So to get into our main topic for today, which really the the main topic.
12:21: is the digital authors tool kit, and Stu, I, I know you've got a lot of things that you're gonna talk to us about, even have patient ready for us here, which we can get to.
12:32: Main thing that I think, correct me if I'm wrong here, but from what I understand, the main thing you do for authors is helping them, like you said, with their online presence, and that is oftentimes in the form of author websites, right?
12:44: And so.
12:45: , just as an initial question to introduce the, the conversation, and then we can go from there.
12:51: How important is it?
12:52: If I'm a, if I'm a self-published author or just any author, do I really need a website?
12:57: Is it, it's 2025, right?
12:59: Is, is a website really that I'm, I'm being tongue in cheek here presenting the question because I know what you have to say on it, but, but to I guess to answer that question, yeah, for four authors, how important is, how important is having An author website.
13:12: Yeah, I mean, obviously I am invested in in this answer to some degree, but out of that and still, you know, I believe 100% you have to have a website.
13:22: I mean, it's just fundamental to your role as an author to be found because, you know, it's a place where you've got full control.
13:30: You're not limited by, you know, how big Amazon says the pictures have to be or, you know, whether it's in a frame or anything, you're totally, you know, it's your house, your rules, so you can do what the hell you like.
13:40: Right.
13:41: And it is a hub for you to send readers to do so many things, you know, meet you as an author, sign up to your mailing list, obviously, and then get directed from the website to other sources to purchase the books, be that Amazon or if you're wide or whatever.
13:57: And it is just a piece of real estate that you own, that you've got complete control over that most importantly as well, if someone searches your name, and I think readers tend to search author names a lot, you know, that's where they go if they.
14:10: Trying to find, you know, I read a great book by XYZ.
14:13: Oh, I'll go and have a look for the XYZ and you need to be able to connect those two things up, the person searching and the thing that they find.
14:19: And of course now, even more important, you know, with GEO, you know, generative engine optimization, another little acronym there, you know, people are going to chat to you and saying, you know, can you find me a book, sci-fi book, you know, based in the future featuring a female astronaut, and so you've got to have all that information.
14:40: On your website for these LLMs to find as well, so it's got a two pronged attack now, not only for sort of traditional SEO search engine optimization, but now for GEO.
14:51: Or whatever they're going to adopt as the as the key thing.
14:55: So yeah, from my point of view, it's about ownership, you know, it's about having somewhere that you can design, you can have all your gear on there, you know, podcasts, interviews, books, you name it, it's just your little thing, and I think it makes your life as an author real.
15:10: Right.
15:10: Right.
15:10: And I think for some readers, it's maybe I'm sure that there are plenty of authors out there, especially in this era who might forego a website because they might be thinking like, I'm going to put my books up on Amazon anyway.
15:23: That's where people are going to be going to buy my books, right?
15:26: Or I have a, I have an Instagram.
15:29: Yeah, like I have social media and my books are there on Amazon.
15:34: A website seems like, like it's an extra step I don't need to do, but how does that really help you, like, I imagine there are some readers that kind of, you know, wonder that maybe like, are you really legit on some level, but I think it maybe helps you stand out when you do, because there's that, that level of, like you said, it's your own space and you own it, but it's, it's also kind of like you've you've, you're establishing yourself as like Just like you would if you had a brick and mortar establishment.
16:02: It's a real place somebody you can go to.
16:04: It kind of almost makes you feel more like real and rooted digitally.
16:08: I don't know if you, you have anything to, to speak to that just in terms of like, like we've already kind of beat, beat that topic to death.
16:16: It is important.
16:16: You need to have it, but I think there's a lot of authors in that camp.
16:19: , who just without one.
16:23: I mean, there's no question about that.
16:25: I don't think you'll exist as well as as having one.
16:28: And yeah, I mean, that's the thing about it, it's gonna point all those people to the Facebook page, to the Instagram, to the Amazon, you know, that's the thing about it that is that's great is that it's a hub for it and, you know, and it makes it real and you wouldn't dream of having a business, other business without having, would you?
16:47: Right, right, and I know at some point you're, you're gonna, I think probably get the chance to, in the presentation that you're gonna share, look at maybe some of the things that you've designed for authors.
16:57: When I took a look at just some of the examples on your website of websites that you had designed for other authors, I see why white people come to you, because I think a lot of authors when maybe part of it is they think of their website, a lot of them are probably trying to do it themselves, which is fine.
17:11: There's people out there doing the DIY method.
17:13: For some people, maybe.
17:14: their budget, whatever it happens to be, but they're thinking, well, how nice can I really make a website on my own?
17:20: And then I, I saw some of the websites you had designed, and I was just floored.
17:24: They're gorgeous.
17:25: And, and I have to say, and with with some of the other things that you, you, you're doing with video and whatnot, integrating that into the whole thing, I, I think it really helps them to stand out.
17:37: What have your authors who you've helped, what have they had to say?
17:42: About, you know, when they got their website redesigned by Digital Authors toolkit, what have they said the results have been?
17:49: Well, very positive, thankfully.
17:51: You know, we've got, like I say, 100 and we've done over 350 websites and, you know, not all of those, but we've done, got like 200 5 star reviews on Reed scene, no one or 4 star reviews at all.
18:05: People tend to love it.
18:06: I think I try really hard.
18:09: I'm going to go a step further than what I said earlier about the website.
18:11: I think the website as well is like a love letter to your readers.
18:14: This is your first chance to really introduce you as a person, as an author, to write to them direct, you know, you're not having to go through a third party, it is your thing.
18:24: And I try and create a really immersive, interactive, interesting experience.
18:30: I think very cinematically and filmic, so I love, you know, things.
18:35: I want the reader to land on an author website and instantly understand what it's about.
18:39: So if it's a side.
18:41: You know, author, I want them to go boom, I get it, you know, whether that's moving spaceships or whatever it might be.
18:48: I'm really big believer in animation and video and just having a whole experience.
18:54: I, you know, I think the days of a white background with your books plonked on it, you know, are still, is still valid, but you know, our audiences are now.
19:03: Experience in the world in very different ways.
19:05: They're used to video, you know, video works, you know, don't tell me it doesn't work, you know, look at TikTok, look at stories, look at everything else.
19:13: So we have to follow that and that's my kind of ethos really with with authors.
19:18: I try and look at technology and apply it to readers, sorry, well authors and readers, and I think that's my.
19:25: USP he's trying to make the websites wow, you know, whoa, that's amazing and have a very contemporary focus, you know, so following what's going on in the world, right, right.
19:39: Now they, they really, they really stood out when I, when I took a look at them and kind of made me jealous.
19:46: those artists, to be quite honest with you.
19:48: Well, shamefully, the portfolio on my website is about 2 years out of date, as is always the case, you know, you do your own one last, so I, you know, we've got so many more exciting ones to put on that would, you know, probably be of interest.
20:03: So I, you've inspired me, motivated me to get on there and update the the portfolio with some new ones.
20:11: Right, glad to be of service in that regard, I guess.
20:15: Yeah.
20:16: So in terms of, cause like some of the things you mentioned, I think like it makes sense, like if, like you said, I can see when you say you think cinematically, like when you when I see those previews of those websites that I, I totally see that now, like, absolutely.
20:32: It's very opening credits of the movie.
20:36: Right, right, it's like inviting, it's immersing you in it, like when you, when you said those words, like, OK, yes, absolutely.
20:42: What, what are some other things that you do to try to help other websites, like help them stand out and and whatnot?
20:47: I mean, architecture of the site itself is important, so not just the way it looks, but how it functions in terms of the journey the the reader takes, you know, so it's all about hitting them with the, with the genre, then the book, and then the sign up to my list.
21:03: And get X, Y, Z, you know, that we all know that's the gold standard for growing your audience, and that's something you can't do if you don't have a website, because you've got nowhere to send them to sign up to, really.
21:14: , since, since you're, you know, building this, this toolkit to help authors kind of create their own space, do you, you're not an author, but do you have any feelings on selling direct versus going wide versus sticking with one?
21:30: , do you get a lot more customers that are direct sellers that sell wide versus sticking to Amazon or Barnes and Noble or whatever?
21:39: So, obviously this has been a hot topic for, you know, a couple of years now, and, you know, because some big players in the industry have talked about it, you know, a lot of other small authors have jumped on the sort of bandwagon, if you like.
21:51: And said, I want to sell direct and I obviously, you know, I've got a great working relationship with Book Volt, who obviously print on demand, which we can use on Wix as well as because I only build my websites on Wix, but it also syncs up with Lulu.
22:04: So you know, there's opportunity there very easily to print on demand and sell direct and also using services like your own.
22:12: But, funnel.
22:13: I mean, it's a really interesting one because there are so many benefits.
22:18: I have actually got a couple of slides in my presentation which I'll whip past when we get there, but, you know, there's obviously the advantage of getting that personal relationship with your reader.
22:26: You get their address, you get their, you know, email address, not just their address, and, you know, and you obviously make a little bit more money per sale, potentially in the sort of immediate sale, but there are things to consider, and I always do give the other side of the coin to my authors.
22:42: Cause all a lot of them will say to me, I want to sale director and say, well, just hold on a second.
22:47: These are the reasons why I think you shouldn't, OK, and there are some.
22:50: Should I get to those when I get to the presentation, cause you can see them.
22:53: Yeah, that'd be great.
22:54: I mean, we can, we can get, yeah, we can get them now or or whatever you want to ship, but I will say that, you know, we, we kind of say the same.
23:01: We have sort of the same message and obviously we're book funnels, so we help authors facilitate direct sales.
23:07: That's what we do.
23:08: So for some authors, it's a great fit and it makes sense.
23:12: For their business model and for other authors, it sounds really attractive, but there are some, there's some things that you got to consider, and our opinion has always been like we're gonna support authors and give them the tools regardless of which path they take.
23:25: So if you're a KU exclusive author using book funnel, we don't have any problem with that, right?
23:32: We're not gonna push you to sell direct, but if you want to sell direct, we're not gonna tell you, you know, not to either, and so, yeah, but we, we can, we can get to some of those reasons.
23:40: I'm, I'm pretty sure we probably line up.
23:42: Yeah.
23:42: In in terms because for some authors, I think it's an individual case by case basis.
23:48: For some authors, it probably checks out and the math is probably there, like, OK, yeah, it makes sense.
23:53: And we've had some pretty successful authors who do direct sales, had them on the podcast, and when you kind of see behind the scenes and know what they have to do to keep that engine up and running, you have to kind of become Amazon yourself.
24:06: It's a lot of work for sure.
24:07: Right, right.
24:10: Exactly, exactly.
24:11: So tell me maybe what some of the, because I imagine there's probably some authors who maybe they created their website like 10 years ago, and they've they've left it there and they haven't updated it, or it's just kind of one of those things that's like in the back of their mind.
24:25: Like, what has changed?
24:27: Like what, what's the technology like now?
24:29: I know you've already mentioned a couple of things, but how have things changed in like the last 1015 years that authors just might not be aware of websites can Do that sort of thing now or, or just the, the way that they can look, how attractive they can be.
24:43: What are some changes that have, have happened, because I imagine there's a lot.
24:46: I mean, the landscape is completely transformed from not only the platforms that people are using, but what those platforms do.
24:54: You know, like I've said a couple of times, you know, I've, I've built loads of author websites and they're all on Wix, and the reason I've used Wix is because after lots of investigation and research, you know, it's.
25:05: Seem to me that Wix was almost like it was made for authors, you know, it's a one stop shop with so much in it, you know, you can make videos, you can edit images, you can obviously have your website, you, you can have, there's an email service built in, you know, comparable to Mailerli and Mailchimp, so all the authors that I work with, I recommend they use that.
25:24: You know, there's it's just the whole ability to create an interesting space is what's made, you know, the major change.
25:32: So I mentioned.
25:33: Early, you know, the kind of white background with your book stuck on it, you know, with a blurb underneath, you know, that's, that's very much in the past, and I think, you know, to move with the times, there's a lot of design cues and contemporary kind of, you know, we've seen a lot of movement on lots of, you know, you've only got to look at the way that Apple markets stuff, you know, they use all these weird and wonderful designs or whatever.
25:54: And it's because that is very modern and very contemporary, and I think those design cues are now possible.
26:01: you know, on a lot of the platforms that are available for authors.
26:03: So I think in terms of what you can put on your website has changed, even just integrations with, with things like Book Funnel, you know, that that is a newish thing that, you know, you can kind of connect connect up your, your mailer light and what have you.
26:18: There's all sorts of crossovers, you know, and the web gets a bit tighter with all these other companies kind of we'll do that and actually book Funnel doesn't sync up with Wix yet, so.
26:27: Right.
26:29: Right, I have a note on that, but we, I'll let you finish.
26:32: Yeah, so yeah, I, I think, you know, the cost is, is relatively, I mean like for weeks, for example, you can have a fully e-commerce website for 259 pounds for 3 years, you know, with everything.
26:45: And I mean, that's, that's pretty cheap, less than $100 a year, you know, and I'm not here just to shove wicks down your throat at all, but.
26:53: It's because it's what I know, you know, and I believe and trust in.
26:56: So yeah, I think the whole landscape's changed.
26:57: I think the need for it is, is, is greater, the need for a website is greater, and just the ability to be able to make that space and connect up with lots of other services is, is one of the main things that's changed.
27:09: Right, right.
27:10: As far as like, so we actually did look into, I'm, I'm not gonna spill too many beans here.
27:15: This is a little bit behind the scenes.
27:17: We have explored an integration with Wix, but it's something we've looked into.
27:21: Unfortunately, there are some of their terms that were problematic for for us, and that's how, that's where I'll leave it, but just so everybody in the audience knows, we have nothing against it.
27:33: In fact, we were really excited to develop an integration, but there were some, there were some hurdles there and maybe after the call too we can get your, your input on that.
27:42: but, but so we chose to forego it, but that, that being said, there are still authors who have Wix websites that still use book funnel.
27:50: Loads.
27:51: I know exactly the way to work around it, it's not a problem.
27:54: Yeah.
27:54: Right, right, and what, and what do you recommend for authors, I guess, in terms of if you're using Wix and you, you want to use Book Funnel, what's your recommended workaround?
28:02: Yeah, so it's really simple.
28:04: So when you sign up to Book Funnel and you create your landing page to give away your free whatever it is lead magnet, just make sure you untick the box that says collect email.
28:14: And then when people go to your website, they sign up to get your free book and you send them a link or you know, you say, hey, thanks for signing up to my website or my newsletter.
28:25: Here's the link to get your free book because we've already got their email address, so we don't need to collect it again a book funnel.
28:30: They just click the book, the button and it takes them to a book funnel landing page, they download the book.
28:35: I don't think there's any less or more friction in that journey than if you're filling in your email on book funnel, you know, it's, it's as easy.
28:44: So we don't need their email twice, so we just get it on the website and use book Funnel to deliver the book.
28:49: Exactly.
28:49: And that's, and this is what we recommend authors do in, in many cases.
28:53: There, there's some other things, some authors are a little skittish about that because that when you, when you're not collecting emails with a landing page, technically speaking, readers can share that link, and then other readers can get the book without having to join your mailing list.
29:07: So that is technically a possibility, but there's two things that I have to say to that, which is number one, If readers share the link to your free book, you should take it as a compliment, because they want to share it with somebody, like, hey, this was really good, you should check it out.
29:22: So you should have a link somewhere in there to read it correct people to join your mailing list, in case they got it from somewhere else, that might be a good idea, somewhere in the book itself.
29:32: But then also, you know, most readers, we've found 99% of readers are honest, and they want to support authors and they.
29:41: They'll get it one way or another, right, right, right.
29:44: There's a very small percentage of of readers that are doing anything nefarious when it comes to that now there are some, and it's not cool.
29:52: We don't like it if you're watching this, cut it out.
29:54: But, but generally very right, right, and we have tools in place for that sort of thing.
30:00: I've seen some authors too who and What some other authors will do because technically you can collect the emails with book funnel and then manually download the emails and then add them to Wix or something like that.
30:11: So you could do that if you really wanted to collect the emails with book funnel, you could.
30:15: The downside there is that if you have some sort of email automation that you want to have triggered right when they sign up for your for your list, that's harder to do.
30:23: Yeah, exactly.
30:24: Yeah, it'll only happen when you upload.
30:27: Well, in fact, it doesn't even happen then because you have to set it to do that when you add imports.
30:32: It, it depends on what service you're using.
30:34: A presentation for us, so we'll go ahead and let you pull that up here.
30:39: So I just put together, I'm gonna try and kill you by PowerPoint.
30:42: I hate PowerPoint, but it was the best and easiest way to demonstrate some of the stuff I wanted to share with you today.
30:47: So one of my passions, like I mentioned earlier, is just trying to find stuff that takes you beyond what you kind of traditionally have as an author.
30:56: So the book, Michael Evans talks about this a lot beyond the book, big fan of his stuff.
31:01: But, so I'm always taking tech that's out there and thinking about how it can be applied to authors.
31:06: And obviously we've been through this wholesaling direct thing, as I mentioned earlier as well, you know, you get this direct relationship with readers who purchase from you, you know, you.
31:14: Often are able to use their email addresses, you can email them, add them to your lists, all that kind of stuff.
31:21: you've got full control over your marketing, your design, your branding, you know, however you want to shape this, it's entirely up to you, and that's a really nice way to be, rather than feeling you've got to do it like, you know, one of the kind of shops tells you to do it.
31:37: another big, benefit obviously is special editions, so, you know.
31:41: Lots of companies that are now doing these print on demand, you can get, you know, gold foiled and shiny backs and all the rest of it, which is something you can't easily necessarily get from some of the bigger stores.
31:53: And so there's lots of benefits obviously including more money per book sale, if it works out that way.
31:59: But like I said earlier, I do always advise authors that there is another side of the coin, and although, you know, there's been some big players shouting about how amazing it is and how much.
32:08: They're selling on print on demand and and selling direct, you know, the facts of the matter are you do need an e-commerce platform, you know, something like Wix or Shopify or WooCommerce, and they tend to come with their own cost.
32:21: So I think the cheapest tier for Shopify, for example, is $25 a month.
32:26: So immediately you've got to be making more than $25 a month in sales to be able to pay for the e-commerce platform.
32:33: There's also a learning curve involved in that because You know, you've got to learn how to upload the books, you've gotta learn how to be a customer service advisor if you've got returns or if you've got problems with deliveries.
32:45: You know, it is a whole new realm of thinking when you become the shop, if you like.
32:52: not only does it cost you more, but you've got to think about yourself as as the person that deals with all of that.
32:56: Obviously you have to generate all the traffic to the website yourself.
33:01: You know, you're not getting any leg.
33:03: Up like you do on Amazon, you know, they, they do the books bought like yours and all the rest of it, but you have to generate all that traffic.
33:10: So if you, if you don't sell any books, it's probably cos you haven't got any traffic, so you've got to go back to the drawing board and say, OK, how do I get people here.
33:17: I mentioned earlier, there's a steeper learning curve across all of this, you know, you've got to learn about paper thicknesses and all the sorts of stuff that you may not have even thought about.
33:26: Postage, you know, it is a minefield of things.
33:30: That you've got to tick off and understand if you do start selling direct.
33:34: And bear in mind my, you know, my preface to this was do it, it's great.
33:38: This is the kind of why you might not, you know, people, there's a trust thing.
33:43: I think we touched on this earlier, you know, people may not be that confident about putting their credit card details into a website they don't know.
33:50: you know, they're quite happy to give their money to Jeff, but not so happy to give it to Stu, you know, because they don't know.
33:56: I am, they're not entirely sure that, you know, I'm legitimate.
34:00: So there's a little bit of nervousness from readers there.
34:03: There's obviously a higher cost to the customer, generally for buying a print on demand or or selling sold direct book, because it often includes the postage, which some of the bigger stores sort of swallow.
34:16: So oftentimes you're gonna be paying a little bit more as a reader to get the books in the first place.
34:21: You can't get a bestseller tag from Sales from your website if you're selling direct because it doesn't count towards sales on Amazon, for example, you know, that's a, that's a big one for me, I think.
34:32: If I was an author, I would be wanting to grab that bestseller tag and then maybe think about selling direct, just so I get it.
34:38: And also you don't get any sort of organic verified reviews, you know, nobody chases a person or not very often do they chase a person that's bought a book from you for a review and it doesn't get posted.
34:49: in a public forum like Amazon, which again is social proof.
34:53: There's lots of reasons why that's a great thing.
34:56: So they're my kind of caveats to great selling directs brilliant, but you know, just remember this as well, and I have seen, you know, a number of authors start selling direct and then stop, because this has all got in the way and it's become a bit overwhelming, or they didn't realize they wouldn't get X, Y, or Z.
35:13: Yeah, yeah, you do have to be prepared.
35:15: Obviously.
35:16: A book funnel, if you're selling ebooks and audiobooks, we can help your readers if they have trouble getting their books, so we can help you out with that support side of thing.
35:25: But we, we do want to caution authors that that doesn't mean that we take over all of your customer service.
35:30: So you still have to process refunds.
35:33: You still have to handle a lot of that stuff.
35:36: Obviously, if somebody's like, how do I get this ebook onto my Kindle, we can help with that part, but there's a significant part.
35:42: Part of like the customer service and cat, you know this too.
35:45: You have the, you're the primary reader support person here, so I guess you can tell us too, like readers can sometimes get pretty frustrated about that kind of stuff, absolutely, especially if they part of the it's the nature of the beast.
35:58: Yeah, they've sometimes there's a, you know, a typo in the email and so the delivery action triggered to the wrong email address so they didn't receive their.
36:07: their transaction email or their book into their book funnel library sometimes, like there's a, there's a whole bunch of things that could go wrong in the process that we can help your readers with.
36:19: But on the flip side of that, like if they bought physical copies of a book, we can't help with that.
36:24: If you've gone over on your pre-order date and because you couldn't finish it in time, you'll need to reach out to your readers and let them know that.
36:32: We can't do returns because we don't process the transactions.
36:35: So there's definitely some things on the author's side, especially if they're going direct, that they'd have to deal with.
36:42: Yeah, the, the, I think a lot of these things will kind of over time, we've, we've even seen in the last few years some of these, these issues are kind of getting solved, like people are figuring out how to do it, but if you're going to do it, any amount of volume.
36:58: In sales, and you're gonna do them direct.
37:00: You are going to be inundated with, with a lot of customer service issues, which, if you're selling on Amazon or another platform, you never see those, it's all invisible to you.
37:10: And so you kind of have to ask yourself like, is that, is that the business you want to have, you know, is that You know, to speak to the trust thing as well, because it's absolutely a valid point, you social proof is almost even more important for somebody selling direct than it is for somebody who's just putting their books on Amazon because they are coming to your website and they are purchasing direct from you.
37:33: And you need to engender trust.
37:34: So using a platform that's also well known, when you're talking about like your e-commerce platform.
37:38: So Wix is, is probably like people are familiar with making purchases on Wix.
37:43: So that's probably gonna help you out a little bit.
37:45: Shopify is another one that people are very familiar with.
37:48: Like, I bought my wife a t-shirt off of Facebook a few months back and it was, it was Shopify and Shopify remembered my details from another purchase that I had made on somebody else's Shopify store.
37:58: So there's some solutions emerging to these problems, but So I'm not being prescriptive, you know, that is, isn't my kind of you must not sell direct cos I love it.
38:08: I think it's brilliant, but I'm just kind of cautious.
38:10: I mean, my view, the thing I say to authors when they ask me about this generally is like I say, look, especially if you're a first time author, you know, get your book on Amazon, sell as many as you can, get that bestseller tag, get some verified reviews, grow your audience, get a fan base, and then once you've got their passions up, sell direct to them cos they will buy from you.
38:31: Yeah, yeah.
38:31: , exactly.
38:33: I think it's, it's important for authors to know what they're getting themselves into, right?
38:37: When, when, especially if they're first time authors, absolutely.
38:40: OK, so I think Cat mentioned earlier maybe animated covers, so this has been something that I've been working on for ages and I love it.
38:46: I really am, I mean you probably sense my excitement about some of this stuff because I really do enjoy doing it and I think it's such a step in a, in a new direction.
38:54: So why would you get animated covers is the question there.
38:58: So obviously it's the wow factor and every.
39:01: One's looking for the stop the scroll, you know, how do we stop people's thumbs, but, you know, how do we get them to stop and look at your content on social media or wherever?
39:09: Movement adds drama or emotion that a static image can't, so, you know, it brings you, we talked about earlier, that immersive experience of seeing something and understanding it through video, and, you know, a static image can't do that in the same way that maybe a video can.
39:24: They obviously make ads and promotions, feel more dynamic and professional, so it looks cool.
39:29: And I think that's part of this journey for a reader as well.
39:32: They, I want them to look on social media and go, what's that?
39:35: What?
39:36: A book cover that moves?
39:38: Are you kidding me?
39:38: I've never seen that before.
39:40: That's amazing.
39:41: You know, it puts you in a different category of people, if you like, if you've got these extras.
39:46: Doesn't mean you can't use normal covers, but these are just add-ons that you can use to attract readers or interest them or get attention, you know, you stand out, basically, as it says there, you know.
39:58: There's a crowded market out there, you want to be doing things that other people aren't.
40:02: And it's fairly low cost, you know, with the advent of AI, this is so easy, you know, you can do it in 10 minutes.
40:09: You might be surprised to believe, but it's true.
40:12: Anyone watching this could do it.
40:13: They might not want to do it.
40:14: And I'm just gonna say one word, you know, Superman, OK?
40:19: Because we all know that it came out on July 11th, it was in my diary.
40:22: I haven't seen it, and I'm absolutely gutted cos I'm a massive Superman fan.
40:26: But.
40:27: Here's the magic.
40:28: When they released the film poster for this film, it was animated, right?
40:33: Right.
40:33: It had sound, it had animation, it, it set the fandom alight because it, it really hadn't ever really been seen like this before.
40:43: I know it seems so easy and basic, but this was a film poster that sang to you that had movement and it told you instantly what's happening, you know, Superman is coming kind of thing.
40:54: And that just puts such.
40:55: Just smile on my face because that's what I've been reaching for for authors.
40:59: You know, this moment of, of wow.
41:02: So I've started with overlays, and if you look at these three examples here, they're all real examples that we've done for people or whatever.
41:09: So Michael over here is a great author who's written loads of stuff that you'd have heard of, but, you know, we just overlay some water there, so there's a drowning woman, really nice subject, obviously.
41:19: But, you know, we just overlaid some bubbles there just to bring it alive.
41:22: OK, so she, I don't know if she dies in.
41:24: And I haven't read the book.
41:25: Let's hope she doesn't.
41:26: But, you know, we've put the bubbles on there, it just brings that book title alive, you know, OK, it just gives us a little bit more insight into the book.
41:35: Rage of the Jin, again, I, I don't read every book that I get sent, believe it or not, but, you know, we just added some sparks here cos it's about heat and fire and all kinds of other stuff.
41:46: And then on the end here, we've just got a very subtle kind of overlay, which just shouts even more that this is a Fantasy novel, right?
41:54: So, not complicated, it's not that difficult.
41:57: There's loads of software out there that can do this.
41:59: Takes a few minutes and oftentimes it is either free or very low cost.
42:03: So that's your kind of starting point.
42:05: Just put some stuff.
42:06: If it's raining on your book cover, add some water, you know, whatever.
42:10: Then we go into sort of true animation, and I've got quite a few of these, so stop me if you get bored.
42:15: But let's, so this is literally the book cover that I was sent by Heather, and, you know, this is what we've turned it into.
42:22: Wow.
42:24: So the dog walks, the helicopter comes forward, there's gunshots and all sorts, and then it's done.
42:30: So just a 12th little animation that's gone from a static book cover to a moving image, much more cinematic and filmic.
42:37: So here's another one, but this is another one of Heather's actually.
42:40: So that's how it came to me, just with two people looking into the distance.
42:44: So we've just added the sky and then walking into the book cover and that's it.
42:49: But that's gonna stand out on social media.
42:51: Then we've got this one and we've all seen this kind of cover, thriller, you know, the poor running man who every time he goes anywhere near a building, it seems to blow up cos it's always in the background and he's like, Oh my God, every time I go anywhere, so this is again, but here he is, and all we've done.
43:06: I made him walk towards the book, you know, into the book cover.
43:10: Really simple little effect, but it's something we've never seen the running man do, you know, and that is gonna stand out in a, in a crowd.
43:18: This is another guy who has a, it's about spiritual awakening, this book.
43:23: So we just, that was the original book cover and we took that and we made the butterfly fly into the sunset cause it's about a butterfly that flies.
43:32: Mhm.
43:33: So we've just done that.
43:34: This one's very subtle, but again it's just something that might, so there you go.
43:39: It just starts to move.
43:40: There's the smoke, the protagonist is looking at the action in the distance, and then we just go a little bit closer into the book cover, to see what's going on.
43:49: And again, here's our running man, you know, we've seen this book cover a zillion times in it in its style anyway.
43:55: Beautiful, I love these, you know, it tells me instant.
43:57: It's a thriller, but let's have him actually engaged.
44:00: We've got the birds flying, the guys walking, it just, it just catches your eye.
44:06: Another one here with the, what I don't want you to forget is that these come as static images, literally as you would get from your cover designer.
44:13: There's nothing special about them.
44:15: And we've done them for nonfiction books as well, so this isn't just a fiction thing.
44:19: So this guy's, you know, he had a compass on the front and we spun it.
44:22: Around because it just makes sense to do that.
44:25: And I think that's it in terms of examples, so I don't know if you've got any questions about any of that or thoughts, but I, I, I think there's, there's a lot of, I remember this topic did come up a while back.
44:38: I remember Joe Conrath mentioning this.
44:41: This would have been over 10 years ago now, this idea, and so there's other people that have, I think, had this idea.
44:48: Mhm.
44:48: But for a while there, it didn't seem like it really caught on, but with the way that books are being shared on social media, and I don't know if Amazon's gonna let you upload an animated book cover anytime soon, necessarily, who knows, but, but the fact that the way that social media has gone and like and like you said, video is everything.
45:07: There's some of those examples you gave.
45:08: I really like the subtle ones, I personally, like this, the smoke in the background on that one, the one with the dog and the helicopter though, that was very impressive and like just the like that's gonna catch, that's gonna be so eye-catching rather than just sitting there as a static book cover and covers they're still great, but once you like even just like the water bubbles or this like little ash.
45:32: , like little dots of ash that it just gives it so much more life.
45:38: It does.
45:39: And, you know, on TikTok, you can just see the author saying, you know, buy my new book now.
45:43: And, you know, funnily enough, book covers are TikToks shaped, and suddenly it cuts to this moving book cover.
45:48: I just think there's such a world for it, you know, and like I said as well, it's low cost, easy access, you know, it's, it's not difficult to do so.
45:57: Yeah, it's not something you have to do, but stand out, be different.
46:00: Yeah, yeah, exactly.
46:02: So yeah, and then that kind of led me on to, and this is all sort of on top of the website stuff, obviously, although we're using some of this in that as well.
46:09: But let's augmented reality, so you know, we're probably beating ourselves around the head hearing about AI, you know, but this is the next thing that I, or not the next thing, but alongside that augmented reality.
46:20: So we are seeing this in lots of places.
46:23: So for example, If you go to Amazon now, you see on the left here, you can see the products that you want to buy in your room.
46:31: So you scan the floor and then you put the object that you're looking at in your room.
46:35: My wife told me off for making that such a messy table.
46:38: She saw this presentation, she said, why the hell didn't you find it?
46:41: So apologies to Emma, but there we are, you know, so you've probably all done this, you've been to.
46:47: sites and try glasses on, you can try wigs on, you can put furniture in your room, you know, you can overlay this stuff now into the real world, OK?
46:56: And it's a really exciting and interesting concept.
46:59: I don't think it's fully there yet, but it is, you know, very much being adopted, not only by Amazon, but now if you've got the new Apple.
47:08: iPhone 16, which I have, I'll just point that out.
47:12: You can now take not only all the usual standard photos, but you can now take a spatial photo, which is basically an augmented reality experience of, so I was at an Ed Sheeran concert on Saturday night and you know, I took a spatial photo of the auditorium.
47:30: In the hope that one day soon, you know, I'll be able to upload that into my Apple glasses or such, and then be able to look around the stadium, you know, and see the world in that augmented kind of experience.
47:43: So I, I love all this tech.
47:45: I, you know, like I say, I'm a big tech freak and a bit of a nerd, so I was thinking, well, how do I make this happen for authors?
47:51: How does this, Technology applied to what we're doing already, and I came up with this.
47:57: So I want you to actually try this.
48:00: So all you need to do is get your phones out, put it on the usual photo app, whatever, and then just scan the QR code and it will just something will pop up at the bottom which says something like viewer stories AR view or something.
48:16: Then once that's happened, you just move your phone over to the book cover and wait for the magic to happen.
48:21: There is something people don't know about isolation in space.
48:24: It can drive you mad.
48:25: There we go.
48:26: In a station on the brink, the edge.
48:31: The Edge, a sci-fi thriller.
48:33: Available now.
48:34: The Edge by author Nathan Harrington takes you on a harrowing journey through the vast unforgiving expanse of space.
48:40: So if, if I'm narrating what I'm, what I'm seeing here, just so that cause for the folks at home watching as well, yeah, people can do it.
48:52: Yeah, so, wow, OK, so I'm looking at, at, I'm literally pointing this at the screen, so I'm seeing what Stu is sharing here on the screen in front of me, but on the screen on my phone that the book is basically turning into an animation, yes, yeah.
49:07: So I just this is not a real book, it's not a real book trailer.
49:10: I just made a very quick book trailer in in video or something and have overlaid it to the book cover, right, so the reader can experience whatever I put on here.
49:20: So let's try another one.
49:22: So this is the other application I think's really good for it.
49:25: So if you do the same again, scan the code, hover over the book.
49:28: Unfortunately, it is me.
49:30: That is so cool.
49:31: I'm.
49:32: I'm making this up, obviously, but this is what, you know, can you imagine readers walking around Barnes and Noble, they pick up a book, they scan the cover and it says, hey, you know, thanks for picking up my book, or at the end of it, thanks you for reading it, and don't forget to sign up to my mailing list.
49:46: You know, the book can talk to them in your voice as an author, or you can make a video or have a whatever you like.
49:53: Let's look at a couple more.
49:54: Examples, and I'll be able to show you an example.
49:56: So it's not only on the front cover, it's on the inside as well, so do the same here.
50:01: So if you scan that QR code and then point it at the text, you'll see a short video of all of the locations that are in this book.
50:09: So she's talking there, this story is set in the northeast of Scotland, where they speak a dialect of Scots called Doric or whatever.
50:16: And if you scan that page, it will show you some pictures of the location.
50:20: So you could be talking about a fantasy world and create some AI imagery, you could be talking about a very specific location and show the reader the experience of being in that place as you talk about it.
50:31: You know, I think that's a really interesting application.
50:33: Another really interesting application which I actually thought of a couple of days ago.
50:38: is, and it goes back to our selling direct actually, a lot of authors want to sell signed copies, but that involves an extra step of getting the book, signing it, and then posting it out themselves.
50:48: Well, now you could personalize a message to someone on the front.
50:53: Cover of your book as an author, you know, and just send a QR code, so they scan the QR code and it says, hey, I'm author Stuart Grant, you know, Fred tells me you really like my writing.
51:03: I wanted to dedicate this book to you and I hope you enjoy it.
51:06: So suddenly you've got a less way of.
51:10: Yeah, personalized messages to readers on your books or in your books.
51:14: , one more, I think.
51:17: This is to show the readers, the people that are watching us, what's going on if they haven't watched already.
51:22: So they're scanning the code.
51:24: I shouldn't have done this at the front.
51:25: You click the view, there's no app to download and you point it at the thing and you can add calls to action at the bottom there.
51:32: So it could say click to view my website or sign up to my mailing list or whatever it is, and they click through to to that as well.
51:39: So this is just a.
51:40: A made up thing and then one more I think.
51:43: Yeah.
51:44: So let's try your very selves.
51:46: So, you know, this goes way beyond the book cover or inside the book.
51:50: It goes into industry and business.
51:52: So if you scan that code again, I've just made an AI video about book funnel, so it will just play as you scan that logo.
51:59: Yeah.
52:00: No, there's, there's lots of Applications for this sort of thing exactly brilliant and for yeah right, I'm excited about it anyway.
52:08: Right, no, there's just so there's so much potential there and so many ways you could use it.
52:13: This list is really long in my head.
52:16: Yeah, but it's like infinite, especially for You know, and the examples that you showed were, were great, but like anything you could do to immerse anybody into your book, I think authors could take that idea and like run with it, and have like a, a, a whole bunch of different ways that they could execute on that.
52:36: Just a, that's a, that's a cause that's never I've, I've obviously known about AR.
52:41: I've even done the thing like you said with Amazon and like.
52:45: Put the product on the table and like, oh, OK, that's cool, but like, no, I just never thought of it for for books or as an author, but that's Once I thought of it and realized how well it works, I just was like this is incredible, this takes books to a whole other level because no longer are they completely static and voiceless, you know, you could have the narrator reading pages, you could have, I mean.
53:12: Yeah, like you say, the list is endless.
53:14: Right.
53:14: It's very exciting technology, very exciting, and again, fairly low cost, well, very low cost actually, and really easy to do.
53:21: You just upload the image and then upload the video and one talks to the other.
53:26: It's that easy.
53:27: Yeah, brilliant, brilliant.
53:29: And then I thought I'd just round up with a few other bits to kind of.
53:32: Talk talk about other stuff that I've thought about, which adds value to your website and you know what you're doing as an author, so you know, a really obvious thing I think is to include Spotify playlists on your website for the book, so it could be songs that the character listens to, it could be a Spotify.
53:49: Palist that you've listened to as you wrote the book, it could be in a scene, you know, the character walks into a bar, whatever.
53:57: So, you know, they're free to create, get all, get your readers to create some, you know, the stuff they listen to when they're reading your books.
54:03: I don't know, again, endless and free.
54:06: Mhm.
54:06: Create some resources for book clubs, you know, they're still quite a thing in the UK, so have a downloadable PDF on your website where you can send people, you know, cos people tell people, so if they're in a group, they'll say, oh, go to that this guy's website and get the resources and there'll be questions or maps or whatever it is, you know, that they can use when they're discussing your booking their club.
54:26: Extra media.
54:28: I mean, here we are sitting talking basically.
54:30: our laptops, right?
54:31: Dead easy.
54:32: We've got like studio quality equipment without having studio quality equipment.
54:37: You know, why aren't authors doing this more?
54:40: So, you know, sticking a phone on the on a stand or on the table and recording the first chapter of their book, reading it and sticking it on the website and then saying, hey readers, if you want to hear me actually read the book, it's on the website.
54:51: So that's a really good reason to go and see it.
54:54: And then any other media that you got involved in, whether you've been on a podcast or you've been on a newspaper or whatever.
55:00: I mean, we saw this huge explosion and I think you're the kind of guy that would have done this, Jack, you know, gone out and bought the behind the scenes stuff on DVD, you know, of your favorite film.
55:12: We were all suckers, you know, we all bought the original film and the 15 behind the scenes.
55:18: DVDs that came with it and and again I think, you know, authors are missing out on this such easy stuff, you know, you could film yourself writing, you could film your office, you could take pictures of your dog, you know, if you are an author and you've got a dog and you have not put that in your newsletter or on your website, you are missing a trick cos readers love animals, right?
55:39: Or cats.
55:40: Yes so with cats, but OK.
55:43: But yeah, you get the idea, there's so many.
55:45: To different two kinds of animals and two different types of people, but yeah, exactly.
55:51: But there's so much behind the scenes stuff that you could generate really quickly and easily, which you can then stick on your website.
55:56: Again, this is stuff you can't put anywhere else really.
55:59: And it's just another draw to get, you know, we were talking earlier about driving traffic if you are selling direct, but anyway, driving traffic, get stuff on there that people want to see, not just your book cover, carry.
56:10: to profiles and artwork, you know, do, I mean, you know, it's so easy now to go onto blinking wherever AI chat GBT, upload your book cover or whatever, and say, can you create a character from my book, you know, this is the blurb, and bing, out it comes, you know, whatever your feelings are about AI I'm not suggesting you do or don't use it, but you know the.
56:30: The capacity to do this is out there and just generate content that you wouldn't necessarily otherwise have.
56:37: The reader sample thing, I think this is a major miss for most authors.
56:41: You can copy the link from Amazon.
56:44: I've checked with Amazon, which is perfectly legit and have that link on your website, so they click on your website, they can click the button that says read a preview and it will open that read a preview page, which has got the buy now button.
56:57: It's got the 10% or whatever it is that you've uploaded as an author, so you can have all of that functionality legitimately on your website, and all you do is right click the reader sample button on Amazon and click the and copy the link and stick it on your website.
57:11: And similarly, so again, you know, they're coming to the website, they can read a bit, they don't have to go to Amazon to do that.
57:16: And similarly, you can do it with audio samples as well.
57:19: This is a little bit more tricky, but not that much.
57:22: So you know, underneath.
57:23: , the book cover on Amazon, if you've got audio, it will show you the sample.
57:27: You can now get that sample and stick it on your website as an MP3.
57:31: And again, I've checked with Audible.
57:33: It's perfectly legitimate, it's absolutely fine, you know, and again, another reason to stick stuff on your website that the reader won't expect, you know, they go to Amazon to see this stuff, but now, boom, it's on your website.
57:46: and I'll just race through these, we're probably nearly at time, but you know.
57:49: Why not do some exclusive short stories or deleted scenes, you know, you could write some scenes that aren't really deleted but you pretend they are.
57:58: And say, you know, if you wanna read the bit between this chapter and that chapter, I've put it on my website, have a quiz about the books, have interactive maps, have fan art gallery, have video content like book readings, or even, and I've said this to a few authors, you know, don't worry about being invited onto a podcast, you know, get on.
58:16: Mabel round, get her to sit at the dining room table, give her a list of questions, stick the phone on you and get her to ask you them and ask, you know, answer them, and then stick that video on the website.
58:27: You know, make your own little podcast in the dining room.
58:30: So easy.
58:31: One of my favorite authors is JD Kirk.
58:33: I love him, he's absolutely incredible and I'm obsessed.
58:37: But he has this brilliant character called Bob Hoon who has got the foulest mouth you.
58:42: Ever heard, do not listen to this.
58:44: If you are sensitive in any way, you will be offended.
58:48: OK, it doesn't matter what you believe in, you'll be offended.
58:51: But this is brilliant.
58:51: You go onto the website, you've got this page for Bob Hoon, you click the let him rip button there, which is in the middle, and it comes out with an insult.
58:59: So it says there you are a sheep-eyed streak of pitch, which if you're Scottish, you'll know what that is.
59:05: But if you're not, you could probably work it out.
59:07: But yes, I mean that it took.
59:09: about 25 clicks.
59:11: It is and it, I'm such a fan and when I went to his website and saw that I was like, genius, this is brilliant.
59:17: This brings the character to life.
59:18: I laughed, you know, it's, it's so clever.
59:21: I'm not suggesting you do that, but you know, it's just you can do something like that from like a character's voice, like, oh, well, have, what, what do you think so and so would say about this and have it generate something from a character's voice.
59:34: Exactly.
59:34: Yeah.
59:35: Family trees, you know, for people that are writing historical fictions or complicated family setups.
59:41: I did this in Canva, took about 10 minutes, 20 minutes.
59:45: You can make all of those links clickable as well, so all the book covers, you just bring them in on Canva, make them clickable so that on your website, people can not only see the family tree, but they can click through to the right book that represents the right character, you know, again, it doesn't take very long, but it's a lovely.
1:00:02: Way to present your sort of legacy in your books, you know, to the reader, and I think this is my last slide really just kind of thinking again outside the box.
1:00:11: I'm a huge Alexa fan and I've got Alexis's literally in every room in my house.
1:00:17: My 6 year old is more smart than me.
1:00:19: She walks around saying it's to turn off TV, it's to play Taylor Swift, Alexa turn on the lights.
1:00:24: I mean, it is like living with Tony Stark.
1:00:27: I mean, it really is.
1:00:28: But for example, I don't know if you'll be able to hear this.
1:00:31: Alexa, open author James Blatch.
1:00:34: Welcome to author James Blatch on Alexa.
1:00:37: Let's start.
1:00:38: James has 3 books available.
1:00:39: You can buy them all on Amazon.
1:00:41: You can read more about James and sign up to his mailing list at jamesblatch.com.
1:00:46: On some more.
1:00:47: Yes, please.
1:00:48: The first book is The final flight, fast and invisible to the Soviet war machine.
1:00:53: NATO's new weapon will.
1:00:55: the course of the Cold War.
1:00:57: There's just one problem, and veteran engineer Chris.
1:01:01: So you know you can talk to Alexa about an author, it will tell you all about them, where you can find them, their books, it could play audio clips.
1:01:11: It can do a whole host of things, and again, you know, completely aside from the book, but you're suddenly in people's homes in a very different and I think exciting, interesting way.
1:01:20: Yeah, yeah.
1:01:21: , and it's, it's interesting because even we had some readers, readers are using it because we had some readers tell us that they have their Alexa or some other device actually read their ebooks to them, so which is something different, that there's a different functionality, but, but people have these in their homes and they're using them.
1:01:42: So I imagine like what what does it take to, to, to set something up because I know that that there's, you have, it's, it's not, I know there's like Alexa skills that you can create.
1:01:53: I don't know if that's what this is or this is something different, but it is, it is exactly that.
1:01:58: There's two ways of doing it.
1:01:59: There's the really horribly complicated way and there's the very easy way.
1:02:03: You go to, I can't remember what it's called, AlexaSkills Developer.com or something and you just register as an Alexa developer, and then there's a section called Blueprint and you can create any kind of skill you like.
1:02:14: It could be a child's game, it could be whatever, and you can use that personally in your sort of world, so it will load onto your Alexa.
1:02:23: , or you can set it to be available in your, this is a bit complicated, so if I make one in the UK, it will only play on devices that are set to play English UK voice.
1:02:38: If you were in the US and you had your Alexa set to to speak in English UK it would do it, but it won't if you put the English US.
1:02:45: The complicated way of doing it is to go through the whole building a skill, which is then available globally and involves a bit of.
1:02:53: Code and funny business, but not impossible, and you know, Chat GBT is my friend.
1:02:59: You just go there and say, I want to do this, show me how to do it.
1:03:03: Take me through it as if I'm a child step by step.
1:03:05: And it says, OK,#1, go here, number 2, go here, and here's the thing.
1:03:10: So yeah, all of this stuff is happening so fast, thanks to AI actually as well, you know, the ability to learn how to do it is, is in our grasp.
1:03:21: Right, right, well, and I.
1:03:22: I know, I know like on there's a note on the AI topic cause I know there are some folks, there's different opinions on on AI and whatnot, especially like with with authors, there's opinions on AI generated art.
1:03:36: And using that for book covers, there's opinions on, like, writing your books with AI, whether or not you're having to generate the book or having it assist you, but even like just if we set that aside, like you said, some of these things like creating an Amazon or an Alexa skill or that sort of thing, people are are using AI and there's there's definitely some utility there.
1:03:57: I, I want to link this back to what you said earlier about GE.
1:04:02: SEO, which is the counterpart to SEO.
1:04:06: I think most people are familiar with SEO, search engine optimization, but people are turning more and more to AI as their search engine.
1:04:14: And so what are some things, and I know you can't tell us the whole, you know, spill all the beans here, but if you are wanting to have your website optimized for GEO, so for, for these AI LLMs.
1:04:29: To find and and use your, your book as a reference.
1:04:32: What are some of the things that you have to do in that regard?
1:04:35: Like what's some of the work involved and how is that different from SEO?
1:04:38: Yeah, and it's still a whole new world, you know, we're still learning, we're still right on the edge of it, and the beginning of it is embryonic in some ways.
1:04:46: Yeah, because we're only just realizing that people are searching in the LLMs for content, you know, in that sense, and you know, Google is dead, you know, that's the the the the king is dead.
1:04:55: To some degree, you know, that is, that is a possibility and obviously they're on the bandwagon with Gemini, but so.
1:05:02: It works in a very similar way in that chat, the LLMs look for content and they marry it up with the search, but you need to be publicly available, so it's a good idea as an author to be on places like Goodreads.
1:05:16: Definitely have a profile on there, have a profile on BookBarb, you know, places where chat might go to find information, you have to be there.
1:05:26: And in terms of your web.
1:05:27: Site, you still think about it in SEO terms, so you still think about, you know, headings and the way that the text is laid out.
1:05:35: And you also have to think about it in terms of accessibility as well, very much, you know, more than we ever did.
1:05:41: And it is a new shift.
1:05:42: There is definitely a shift coming and or it's almost already here, but it's just that I've got another presentation actually if you want me to, but maybe another, maybe another day.
1:05:53: Yeah, I mean, I, I did, I've just done a digital session for SPS Live, you know, the self-publishing show.
1:05:59: And that is all about this, and, and, you know, GEO and how you'd have to do SEO stuff and GEO stuff.
1:06:06: But essentially good quality content is always gonna win, no matter what we're talking about, right, so making sure you've got good consistent book blurbs, making sure all your social medias.
1:06:17: Because LLMs look at social media, so making sure that you mention your genre in your bio on all your social medias, so you know, science to science so, author of science fiction novels.
1:06:29: So if anyone searches science fiction novels, it will find you and present you with the result.
1:06:34: You know, it's a thinking smart about the places that it's gonna go and what you want it to find, and those things are the same things as you wanted before, which is your name.
1:06:45: The types of book you write, the titles of your book, and any other pertinent information, you know, that is out there that is gonna be relevant for the people that are looking for you.
1:06:54: So again, it's always about thinking like the reader as well.
1:06:58: So what are they gonna Google, you know, I want, you know, some romance, fantasy novels featuring a vampire.
1:07:04: Well, if that's what your book's about, make sure that it's written in every bio, in every book blurb, everywhere, because LLMs will find it.
1:07:11: And so will usual search as well.
1:07:14: Right.
1:07:15: Does that sound Yeah, there's a lot of overlap between the two, to some extent.
1:07:21: Completely, yeah, the same principles are going to apply.
1:07:25: You know, it's about writing the right things in the right places to get found.
1:07:29: Right, right.
1:07:31: But honestly, you know, if you want to get found by Chat GBT tomorrow, then get on Goodreads and create a profile and get on Book Club and create a pro, you know, and have your Amazon profile up to date and ready, you know, there are 3 things you can do tomorrow in 5 minutes to make sure it's consistent and ready.
1:07:49: Exactly, at least for what we know at the moment.
1:07:51: Right, right.
1:07:52: Yeah, who knows, it's one of those things that'll that'll keep on changing.
1:07:56: It's interesting, you know, even from our perspective here as book funnel support, we have had authors who have like come to us and they're like, well, I asked Chat GPT how, how to troubleshoot this issue and this, that or the other, which sometimes has mixed results.
1:08:12: Yeah, definitely verify your results.
1:08:15: Yes, right, if you're gonna do that, but, but nevertheless, just interesting that that that's what people are turning to first sometimes.
1:08:23: Yeah.
1:08:25: For to get answers on questions.
1:08:27: You know, I, generally speaking, if you have a question about book funnel and how to use it, I would say just you can just email us, you know, you gotta wait a little bit longer than you would to get a response from Chat GPT or another LLM, but in that context, yeah, I think the human element of things we might be able to help you out a little bit better in that regard.
1:08:44: But in terms of like searching for information, it makes sense that it's pulling that.
1:08:49: From, from everywhere and so you're gonna be discoverable just like you are on, you have been on search engines.
1:08:55: You're gonna be, you should want to be discoverable there so people can can stumble upon you.
1:09:00: Just a really interesting evolution of the with this new technology, right, exactly, you know, it's only tweaks really because it's already stuff we had to do if I was an author, I say we, but you know.
1:09:13: All this stuff you had to do anyway, make sure you were optimized, make sure you were on every platform you could think of, you know, if you haven't got a profile on every social media platform, you're doing it wrong.
1:09:24: Even if you've got, you know, even if you're on Instagram, right, and you say, I don't really hang out on Instagram, but you can find me on Twitter or X.
1:09:32: So have a have a profile even if it's dead, you know, because you never.
1:09:38: never know when a search engine or LLLM is going to find that, which points them in the right direction, at least.
1:09:44: Exactly.
1:09:45: All right, well, that's going to do it for today's episode of the Book Funnel podcast.
1:09:49: So, I want to thank you for joining us today.
1:09:53: Before we go, anything you want to shout out?
1:09:54: Where can people find you, your work, that sort of thing.
1:09:57: Thanks.
1:09:58: Well, dead easy to find me, digital Authors toolkit.com.
1:10:02: , there's lots of things that you can play with and look at, or you can find me on Read see as well if you, if that's where you'd rather look.
1:10:10: and happy to answer any questions, you know, don't fool you've got to buy a website.
1:10:13: You can just email me and chat.
1:10:15: Happy to have these discussions.
1:10:16: You can probably tell I love talking, so by all means reach out, ask questions, tell me you like it, tell me you don't, whatever.
1:10:22: I'd love to hear from you.
1:10:23: Excellent.
1:10:23: Well, thank you again for joining us for this episode.
1:10:27: It was a blast.
1:10:28: You've, you've blown our minds here with some of the stuff.
1:10:32: Well, I really enjoyed sharing it with you, so you know, thank you so much for having me.
1:10:37: Yeah, absolutely, Cat, thank you for co-hosting with me today.
1:10:42: My pleasure.
1:10:42: It was fun to have you on the podcast.
1:10:44: We'll have to have you on again.
1:10:45: It was it was good.
1:10:46: It was a good.
1:10:47: Not that there's anything wrong with Emma and Kelly, excellent co-hosts all the time, as always.
1:10:52: I don't get jealous.
1:10:54: Right, right, every now and then they, they need a, they need a break, and that's totally fine.
1:10:58: It was good to have you here.
1:10:59: Thank you for.
1:11:01: Co-hosting, and for those of you who are watching or listening, thank you for joining us for this episode of the Book from podcast.
1:11:08: If you're on YouTube, please like the video and subscribe to the channel.
1:11:12: Also, leave a comment with maybe your main takeaway from this episode of the podcast while you're there.
1:11:18: If you're listening, listening on a podcast platform such as Spotify, Apple Podcasts, or what have you, please follow us there and leave us a review.
1:11:27: It really means a lot.
1:11:28: I want to thank you all for listening.
1:11:30: And we will see you all in the next one.
1:11:33: Thank you for watching.
1:11:34: Check out these other videos from Book Funnel and don't forget to subscribe to the channel.