Increase Book Sales on KDP with THIS | Book Rescue

About this video

This episode of the Fiverr-sponsored 90-day ‘Book Rescue’ challenge follows Dale coaching Sarah Walday, a paranormal cozy mystery author and full-time homeschooling mom of two who has published over a dozen books in five years. After 27 days spent on keywords, descriptions, covers and a deep edit of her upcoming release (book six), the focus shifts to launch marketing. Dale advises building an ARC team first from her email list and social following, using video calls to action themed around the book rather than hard pitches, and saving newsletter swaps and group promos for the actual launch. They settle on a beginning-of-June launch rather than mid-May, since May 19 conflicts with her son’s graduation and the proofreader’s timeline is uncertain. Dale brings in two experts: online business strategist Johnny Andrews, who has helped over 18,000 authors since 2011, stresses constantly growing and cross-promoting email and social audiences, planning a content calendar weeks ahead, running small $1–$3/day ads, and asking ‘what must I demonstrate to be true in order for people to want to buy my stuff’; publicist Jason Jones (20+ years in PR, 11 New York Times bestseller campaigns) frames publicity as a marathon built on relationships and on finding your specific audience rather than everybody. Two surprises follow: Hannah Jacobson of Book Award Pro sets Sarah up with a professional award nomination — submittable pre-publication once a book feels 90–95% complete — for third-party credibility, and Sarah receives a free year of StoryOrigin (about a $100 value) for review copies, beta reading, audiobook codes, newsletter swaps and group promos.

Key takeaways

• Build your ARC team from your email list and social following early, but reserve newsletter swaps and group promos for launch week.
• Set the launch date around real-life constraints and production timelines; Sarah’s launch moved to early June to avoid a family conflict and proofing risk.
• Johnny Andrews’ core question: ‘What must I demonstrate to be true in order for people to want to buy my stuff?’ — grow and engage email and social audiences daily, cross-promoting each.
• Publicist Jason Jones: book publicity is a marathon built on relationships and community participation, aimed at your specific audience, not everybody.
• Awards can be pursued before publication — Book Award Pro recommends submitting when a manuscript feels 90–95% complete — and tools like StoryOrigin centralize review copies, beta reading and swaps.

Episode details: published November 15, 2022 · 12:12 long. Summary written by Self Growth Videos from the episode itself. Business results and any income figures mentioned are Dale L. Roberts’s own claims, shared for education — they are not typical or guaranteed.

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