Ep 216 Book Brush to the Social Media Content Rescue! with Kathleen Sweeney
Pencils&Lipstick podcast ·
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Transcript
SPEAKER_00
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Welcome back everyone to Pencils and Lipstick, I'm Kat Caldwell and today is February 5th and this is episode 216 and we are going to talk about marketing today, specifically about social media and the graphics and all the things that we have to do, posting consistently and if you're already getting hives, I understand. But more than giving you tips and tricks which
SPEAKER_00
00:00:37
are lovely and great, I am going to be talking with Kathleen Sweeney of Book Brush and we're going to talk about how Book Brush can do the things for you. Now I know that doing things for you is not for everyone, right? But Book Brush is a great place to start if you want to do it yourself, they have their software is created for you to do your whole DIY, social media, A plus graphic content. You can do your book covers there. You can create a lot of things on book brush. It's like Canva for authors times 20. It's a great place to check out and I pretty much recommend it to everyone. Now, as we know, it's 2024 and social media is not going away. In fact, they keep creating new ones. And while they all said Twitter was going to collapse, it still hasn't, as far as I know. And TikTok is even more relevant despite many people wanting to cancel it. And Instagram and Facebook somehow are still here. And the kids are doing the snap. But, you know, very few of us can market on there. Let me know if I'm wrong on that one. But social media is not going away. The Internet's not going to go away. And you need to figure out graphics and graphic content. And so I want to bring to you guys always the options that are out there, specifically options that are created for authors because our business is a little bit different than everyone else's, right? It is a creative entrepreneurial endeavor. And I think it's great that a lot of these businesses are creating things specifically for us, with us in mind, and they understand all the things that go into selling a book. And it's not just selling your book. It's telling people about who you are, about your characters, and about where you live, and why you got the idea, and the things that are coming up and where they can find your newsletter. It's a lot. I personally have gotten a little overwhelmed with it and just as a disclosure, I am actually working with Book Brush now to do a lot of my social media as I build up to my Kickstarter. I do not get anything. I'm not an affiliate with them. So if you guys sign up with them, I don't I don't make any money not that I find anything wrong with that
SPEAKER_00
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But I just want you guys to know that I really believe in this company. I use them myself I am very pleased with with with what they've done and with what I'm able to do on their website My plan is to come out with quite a few books in the next two years, which means quite a few graphics So we are gonna talk to Kathleen Sweeney She is kind of the lady that's out there on videos If you want to know more about book brush she was On the show about a year and a half ago, but you can find book brush on YouTube I encourage you to go and check out their channel. They talk to you about how to use their software They're very upfront with teaching you They Kathleen gives webinars all the time trying to teach people how to do things themselves They give a lot away as many, many businesses do. And don't bulk at all the offerings that she's here to talk to us about today. For some of you, it will be just information that you need to keep stored in the back of your head for the day that you need it. For some of you, you might realize now that keeping up with social media just isn't worth
SPEAKER_00
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your time and it would be a better exchange of money for redeeming that time back to write your books. This is where business comes into this, right? I mean, I know that we're creatives, but we're also business owners. So here is the interview with Kathleen Sweeney. I think you're going to be really pleasantly surprised about all the things that they have to offer. And honestly, they do things that I hadn't thought about doing. And so you're probably going to want to find, like, stick around and listen to all the things that they do are all things that you can do on Book Brush. Just like you're going to find even more ideas on what to post yourself just by listening to Kathleen. So all the links are in the show notes below. If you decide that you want to do a free consultation, the link is in the show notes below. If you want to have them do your A plus content or whatever it is, the links are in the show notes below. And I just encourage you to check out this business. Let's get into the interview right after you subscribe to the podcast. Share it out with anyone who's like, oh, I can't keep up with my social media. Like, here, listen to Kathleen talk about what Book Brush can do for you. If you could leave a review, if I have some reviews with the 2024, you know, sticker date on there, then it feels more relevant.
SPEAKER_00
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Thank you all for those who have reviewed. I really appreciate you. Thank you guys for listening. Share it to all your writer friends. And okay now let's get in to the interview All right, so my guest today is Kathleen Sweeney I have interacted with her quite a few times She will give little workshops for book brush She will talk to me about book rush. She has convinced me to try book brush and I've become a lover of book brush So thanks, Kathleen, for coming on and giving us like an update to this fabulous company called Book Brush. Awesome.
SPEAKER_01
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I am excited to be here. I feel like we're a match made in heaven because Kat and Kathleen, you know, and I go by Kat, was my
SPEAKER_00
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friend. So it's perfect. Kat Kat,
SPEAKER_00
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we're going to be talking about author marketing and graphics and some things that give authors hives. That's
SPEAKER_01
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what we're here for, to take away your hives. We can do the things that don't bring you joy,
SPEAKER_00
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right? Yeah. So before we go into all the new things, let's let anybody know who might not know Book Brush. What is Book Brush and what do you do there?
SPEAKER_01
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All right. So Book Brush itself is an online platform designed specifically for authors to be able to create your own marketing graphics and so many more cool things. We've been in the author space since 2018 and established ourselves, I think, as just a leader of all things graphics with in the author niche. Personally, I've been here since the beginning and I'm the manager of operations, the marketing director, the janitor, the fun one, all the things, you know, other duties as assigned.
SPEAKER_01
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If you book a call, you may be talking to me. If you send a note into the help desk, it may be me who ends up responding as well. So it's a pretty small company. It's small company with big dreams.
SPEAKER_00
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Yes, well, I mean, if you go onto bookbrush .com, it doesn't seem small. It is a very robust software.
SPEAKER_01
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I tell you what, we hit 100 ,000 users this year, so we do have a pretty wide reach in the author space.
SPEAKER_00
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Wow, that's very cool. So when you talk about graphics, maybe somebody's new to writing or maybe they're just in the midst of writing and they're like, graphics? Why do I need
SPEAKER_01
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graphics? And that's exactly the question, because you thought you were writing a book and here now you need what? And so that's where Book Brush comes in. You're probably going to want to post about your book on social media so you don't always know the sizes for Facebook, for Instagram, for TikTok, for Pinterest, all of those things and so many more. We have all the sizes and dimensions and pixels so you can come in, you can bring in your 2D cover if you already have it, upload that, and then we have tons of templates, thousands even, put together by a graphic designer. You just put your book cover in and then put the kind of promotional wording that you want. So advertising your book if it's on sale, a great quote, and then download the graphics. So a shout out for folks who are brand new, you can create a free account and create 15 images at no cost at all. So that gives you a little taste and a way to test drive things and create some of those graphics. So that's what I mean by graphics. If you also see those 3D versions of folks have out there of their book, like where did they make it 3D? We have nearly 300 3D versions for your book. So you may see all kinds of ebook versions, phone versions, audio versions. You can put your book in a Polaroid picture. So lots of different things you can do with the cover, like magic.
SPEAKER_00
00:09:41
Yeah, it is really magic. And for anyone who knows Canva, which it's like the, it's not for authors. It's like really for marketers. That has, I maybe one book and mock -up and it's not great. So like, there's really a
SPEAKER_01
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difference. Canva's fine, but it's for everybody.
SPEAKER_01
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And so when you come into Book Brush, it was designed specifically for authors. Every time you turn around and everything you see is author -specific. And it's just all the handy things in one marketing toolbox with an author name tag on it.
SPEAKER_00
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It has the right shape stars that I don't have to go looking for.
SPEAKER_01
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Yes, and on top of that,
SPEAKER_01
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you can now do gradient color on them. So you can have your review stars match like the colors that are in your book. So you color pick and gradient color, totally personalized.
SPEAKER_00
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Yes my favorite is that I can like suction the color from my cover and put it into the background and it matches and I don't have to go looking for that color code.
SPEAKER_01
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It's amazing it's a great way to stay on brand for you and create graphics that aren't clashing so let's say you've got you know a red dress on your cover all reds are not created equal you want that same exact amazing red so color picker for the
SPEAKER_00
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win. Yes yes I love it and for anyone new to all this
SPEAKER_00
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it might sound like a lot, but there's tons of videos on bookbrush .com. And like Kathleen said, you can go around and play, play around with it. There's lots of people on there who have a much better graphic eye than me, let's say. And they've, they've kindly uploaded their templates. There's just so much you could really spend hours on there. And it, you could spend hours and yet making my graphics yesterday, I think I spent like 15 minutes like bum bum bum bum you
SPEAKER_01
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know. Quick yep you could easily do a little holiday photo shoot with your book drop it into all those different holiday templates and now you can flood social media with those kind of seasonal things. People just are in a festive mood they're probably more likely to share a festive graphic so put your book in that kind of scene put it out there and see where it goes.
SPEAKER_00
00:11:54
Yeah yeah it's it's fairly fairly easy I mean even if you haven't tried any of like graphic, any Canva or anything like that. So we've established book brush and bookbrush .com. And of course, links will be below, but book brush continually comes out with new things. Like you guys now have like, I mean, I think it was a year ago, you had the spine of the books. Like that's amazing because that's one of the hardest things we were told for years, like guys, it's really hard. No, but I want the spines of my books right on the graphic, you know, and you guys can - So we have it and like series you have time, you know, there's so much there but you're coming out You've come out with even more options. So let's talk about these new things From book brush that you want to absolutely
SPEAKER_01
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so we have typically focused on a pretty robust offering of do -it -yourself tools and That's not going anywhere. That's our software side and we have a lot of people using those but we also have folks who come into the help desk or maybe on a webinar here and there, and they say, can you just do it for me? And so the answer is yes, there are ways that we can do those things for you. And so we've also expanded our services side. We affectionately call them software and services. They both are part of Book Brush
SPEAKER_01
00:13:13
and I handle a lot of both of them. So if you think about services, that's hiring us to be your VA. We call this hourly concepts because we have different projects that we can do and we price them by the different hours. So I'll just give you one prime example. And I don't know if you've talked a lot about, have you talked much about Amazon A plus content on your channel?
SPEAKER_00
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No, I don't have any,
SPEAKER_00
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cause I don't want to do
SPEAKER_01
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it wrong. We can do it for you. So you are in the same boat as a lot of folks and just I'll step it back. Amazon A plus content are the images in the from the publisher section on a person's Amazon page. And if you have access to your own KDP dashboard, you can add those yourself. And they're really great because they can call out different tropes and things add interest to your page. Like why not put it on there? It doesn't cost any extra for you to add it. But you also want it to be on point. And there are a few things that you need to maybe learn to do it. this is why people don't have it. You can hire us to do it. So we do a large amount of Amazon A plus content. And the reason is because our team knows how to do it.
SPEAKER_01
00:14:27
So that's a two hour project. You can buy a package of hours and we can talk about pricing and things like that. But let's say you buy 10 hours, you have that, you can order Amazon A plus. It's kind of neat because you say you've got a series, you can order a set that works for the whole series, Or you can do a book specific where and you may be familiar with this but Amazon A plus usually has three stack modules. That's the most popular. Though the top two could be specific to a book and the bottom module has all the books in your series. So it's brilliant because whatever page your readers land on then they see oh there are other books. So we can go through and create that for each book in your series.
SPEAKER_00
00:15:08
Right, right. Okay so when when we're talking about A plus
SPEAKER_00
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content. The reason why I don't do it is because I've been told if it looks DIY it's going to mess up your page. Is that sort of what you've heard as well?
SPEAKER_01
00:15:28
We don't want to discourage anybody from giving it a go obviously, but when you want to put your best foot forward on Amazon you don't want them to scroll down and think, huh, that does look DIY. And so we have a team of designers on Hourly Concepts. They're at your fingertips. They do the projects that you don't love or don't have time to do, or just want to take off your plate. So this is a perfect example of a place, like if you're putting your best foot out there and you wanna look professional and well -branded, then this might be a project to hire out.
SPEAKER_00
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Right, right.
SPEAKER_00
00:16:01
And I might not remember the font name on my book cover, but I bet somebody who works in graphics probably knows it pretty well. Right? We are font nerds over here. We spend all
SPEAKER_01
00:16:11
kinds of time thinking about fonts and I could probably do a whole session with you on fonts, not that I'm the expert, but I love talking about it. So make sure if you're doing the graphics yourself that you're, I'll send you some links for font pairing blog posts because you want, and you can put them in the bottom, but you want to make sure if you have a Thriller book that you have a font that gives off a Thriller vibe, those kind of things. Like don't go in and create a graphic that you think looks really lovely and you've used this romance -y font but you've got a you know a sci -fi book or vice versa. So the font is important so the whole package comes together and looks nice and reels in the right readers. So when your graphic gives off the right message then it gets in the hands of the right readers. They leave reviews because they were happy because it matched all
SPEAKER_00
00:16:57
the things. All the things, yeah, and these are things that we might not think about as authors, right? Like a lot of times, I mean it goes with like book cover. You might think something's really lovely and I've changed a couple book covers quite a few times. A, the trends change, but something that I thought looks lovely when I wasn't really in the business yet, turns out it doesn't tell the reader what it was, right? So that's why we have these.
SPEAKER_01
00:17:25
Exactly. So you may have a cover that is really lovely, but if it's not giving off the right vibes and things for your genre, the person who does buy it may be disappointed because they were anticipating a different kind of story from the cover. And trends are trends because they work. And so you want to be up on those cover trends because that's what people who are looking for this particular type of book will be looking for.
SPEAKER_00
00:17:49
Okay. So then, more than the A -plus content, what other things does an author might need a VA for? Especially for somebody who might not have been thinking that far ahead or somebody who's like, we feel like we're doing all the things all the time. So what are the things that you can take off of our plates?
SPEAKER_01
00:18:11
I'm going to keep on hourly concepts here first. So it's basically, that's a lot of graphic design related things. And I'm just gonna talk through verbally some of the other things that we do. So A plus is probably our number one thing that people order. And then secondly would be book trailers. Book trailers are really kind of a cool way to bring your story to life. And they're not super easy to do on your own as a do it yourself option. And that's a three hour project. So as we talk about hours and things And people are budgeting their hours.
SPEAKER_00
00:18:46
Only hours? Yeah, for do it in three
SPEAKER_01
00:18:49
hours? We do. You fill out a little form and tell us. You pretty much want like three sentences that are going to tell a story, tell us about the scenery. We need your genre and your blurb. So we pick music that if you've got a happy story or something suspenseful that the music pairs up. And then we put it together. They turn out really cool. These are horizontal, they're less than a minute long, and they work really nice on
SPEAKER_01
00:19:13
YouTube or on your own author website, those kinds of places. Okay. They're really cool. So that's probably number two on popular things that people are ordering.
SPEAKER_00
00:19:25
Yeah, because I have tried Bookshare. There's all these things out there, right? And people can do really cool things, and you see it on social media, and then you're like, well, I can do that. I know my book inside out. and then you start doing it and it's like oh well now I need music oh well I need something that I have the rights to oh then I need what dimensions is it oh I need like you realize fairly quickly that it's not for for a newbie or for a writer who doesn't have much of graphic design background it's a lot more than a three -hour project. And
SPEAKER_01
00:20:00
what else happened in the meantime you didn't get your writing done.
SPEAKER_00
00:20:03
Yeah, you're just frustrated. You're Oh, who cares? I don't need a book. Tearing your hair out.
SPEAKER_01
00:20:10
Yeah. And you ended up without a book trailer and no more words on the page. Like it's just terrible all the way around. So those are the kind of things that it's like, take a package of design hours and walk through things that we you know, might be able to put together for you. So we also do animated book covers that works out really well because we take your 2d cover and just add a little bit of animation it's like magic I don't really know how they do it because again I'm the fun one over here but it turns out really nice like you know there could be birds or they take something moves glitter coming down and they're like 11 seconds long or so no sound just pure
SPEAKER_01
00:20:52
magic so animated book covers are a really cool option
SPEAKER_00
00:20:55
yeah especially if you have it like an intricate book cover like i've seen some especially for like horror thriller they're very intricate like you can bring the eye to certain things that sounds yes
SPEAKER_01
00:21:07
i have one where i'm like watch this watch this guy's gonna wink and then he winks like at you and it's like harry potter yes yes very cool um you know and it's funny that you mentioned harry potter so i'm gonna go on a five hour project and you get three samples and then two complimentary revisions on that. So you really love it. But the reason I'm bringing this up is a lot of authors are like, oh, well, I already have a logo. However, we also do logos for things in your book. So like think of how many people are wearing a Hogwarts or a Gryffindor shirt, there's a logo. So we did one for an author who has a band in her book and now she can use that to do merch like keychains and stickers and cool things. So if you have a book or a series that has a restaurant that people own or go to all the time or the company they work for if that's a central part of your story, think about the options of creating logos for that that you can then use to kind of take the whole thing and take a step further with merch and selling different items and stuff like that, swag items.
SPEAKER_00
00:22:21
Oh, that sounds very cool. I hadn't thought of that.
SPEAKER_01
00:22:24
I think it's a really cool idea. And the one that we did for the band in the book, then it's like, OK, people are excited about that band.
SPEAKER_01
00:22:32
It's in the book and she can get coasters, whatever else you want to do for those kind of things. So there's my I just piggybacked your Harry Potter comment with that.
SPEAKER_00
00:22:43
Yeah, you got to realize that, like, that's how you sort of create this fandom, right? Is having sort of not just the book, but accessibility to like the different, I guess it's like the book boyfriends and like, so yeah, series, you different, different male characters and they'll choose their, their favorite or whatever. So yeah, if you can just keep keep that going, right, your fans will be happy.
SPEAKER_01
00:23:06
Make it easier for them to get those kind of things and you know, have maybe you do would sell them or take them to in -person shows. You could either sell them or hand them out, whatever, those kinds of things, but it's kind of fun. So there's something with logo design, besides just getting your own logo done, you could do something like that with your books. Couple other things, we do a lot of social ads and you can do those yourself in Book Brush, but sometimes you want somebody with a design eye. We do a lot of BookBub ads because they're super tiny. There are 300 by 250 pixels, which a lot of people know, but you'd need to pack a lot
SPEAKER_01
00:23:42
of knowledge into that teensy size. And so that's just a one -hour project, but we can do a book bub ads for you too. Oh, interesting. And of course, Facebook and Instagram, you'll just tell us what you need it for.
SPEAKER_00
00:23:58
And that's interesting because making an ad is different or should be different from making a social media post. and like I don't think we always realize this until it flops. So I learn a lot by failure. Don't we all? Yeah. Yes. You put it out there, you say, well, I'll do it, you know, or, oh, I landed a book bub ad or whatever, like, oh no, I have to make this. And you, and you just, you learn by realizing, okay, this isn't working or hasn't caught anyone's eye or that ad did something different than my ad, right? Like there's just, it's different language, it's different graphics, it's different. So
SPEAKER_01
00:24:39
you can have a design team who can do those things for you and you can still do the fun things that you're enjoying doing that you're maybe just posting in general on Instagram but the ads you might use differently.
SPEAKER_00
00:24:49
Yeah, yeah. So BookBub, Facebook, all the social medias, are they coming out with more than they probably are? Yes,
SPEAKER_01
00:24:58
a couple other things just to throw in there that we've done and we do think are pretty fun. And we also have done movie posters. So we take your book and make it into a movie poster like the cover. So characters, like think about when you go to the theater, you have the characters listed on the movie poster, the stars of the show, those are the characters in your book. It's produced by you. You could list your editor if you want to.
SPEAKER_01
00:25:24
And then we say like created by Brush Media Group. So it seems like movie -ish. And then you'll get that digitally. So you could use it as a reward if you're doing a Kickstarter or something like that, you can give it to your fans digitally. You can print it and put it behind you so it looks really cool when you're on. So it's just a different way to take your book to a different level and create some excitement.
SPEAKER_00
00:25:46
Yeah, that sounds cool. And if we continue to do in -person events, that seems like a really nice thing to have, like, at your stand or at your table or whatever, like, and a little bit different, you know. It's unique, yes, exactly.
SPEAKER_01
00:26:01
Yeah, it's fun. And of in -person, we also design the retractable banners that you may want, and it can be the full size or the tabletop, and sometimes those have your actual picture on them. We can do QR codes if you want that, which is kind of a good idea on the printed materials, but you're not always sure where to get those done, and if you're already using Book Rush or familiar with us, like, we're going to create a nice author -centric retractable banner.
SPEAKER_00
00:26:26
Yes, not just staples. I think that's the only other place I know to get it.
SPEAKER_00
00:26:30
It's like every time I work with them, I'm always like, no, that's not what I want.
SPEAKER_01
00:26:35
Well, and we'll deliver it. You'll still have to go get it printed somewhere, but the design work is done by a designer. So you have that under your belt. So I think those are just a lot of the highlights of things that we do. You can buy a la carte hours. So if you know you just want one book trailer, You can just buy three hours and you're on your way, but you can also buy packages that either renew monthly So we have some folks who buy like five or ten hours a month and it just renews monthly I can tell when they have their new hours drop in because here come their projects I know that they I think they have like their little Battle rhythm or strategy like oh this month I'm gonna do Amazon a plus and a movie trailer or book trailer for this book next month is this and so I see it come along and they're just building up their branding month by month over
SPEAKER_00
00:27:25
time. Yeah, especially if you have a back catalog, like you probably can't afford to do it all at once. So you just like book one, book two, book right? Like whatever you can do.
SPEAKER_00
00:27:36
You know,
SPEAKER_01
00:27:36
if you have a couple different series, an affordable way to get started with the Amazon A plus is just do a set of each by series. So maybe the first one has five books in it. you have all five books in the bottom module and the text pertains to all of them and so I don't have a book but from what I'm told when you go to post it on Amazon there's a button to click that says apply it to all the books in the series and it's done so that can be a way to really beef up your presence on Amazon and how that looks but if it's in a series then the same Amazon A plus if it's series specific work nicely yeah and that way all sudden look they've got Amazon A plus content all
SPEAKER_00
00:28:19
over the place. Right. And if you want, it can be a placeholder for a while until you can get all of them or just leave them like that. See, see what works. Absolutely. Either one. Okay. So you're not cheating if you do that. As far
SPEAKER_01
00:28:33
as I'm concerned, no, I think it's smart. I mean, in a perfect world where we all have buckets of money, we would have all the things,
SPEAKER_01
00:28:40
but if you want some Amazon A plus and you know, you may have a book series that has 10 books. Well, that would really take a lot, but we can put them all in that and then you can at least promote the whole series with that. So not
SPEAKER_00
00:28:52
cheating.
SPEAKER_01
00:28:53
No.
SPEAKER_00
00:28:54
Smart. Smart business decision. Yes. Yes. Yes. So the, this VA, this goes by hours. So you guys have already decided how many hours each project takes. So there's no like surprises there.
SPEAKER_00
00:29:08
It's I'm buying the two hours and that's from my Amazon A plus content and I will definitely get it within that two hours because sometimes that doesn't happen when you hire VAs.
SPEAKER_01
00:29:19
So, me explain. It's two hours of design time that you're paying for, but when you submit the project, it usually can take up to a week for you to get it back. You don't have it back in two hours. That's of it, right? Yes, it's priced in the hours. So, I'll make sure you have the links for all these things. So, for hourly concepts, there's a portfolio and a pricing menu so you can look through what you might need hours wise for your wishlist and then kind of pare it down and see what you'd want to purchase.
SPEAKER_01
00:29:47
And that's just hiring us for those, you know, extras to make yourself look a little more polished and then you can still use book brush for the other things like that.
SPEAKER_00
00:29:55
Yeah. Yeah. And what I meant, like, no, definitely not two hour turnaround time, but you're not like building a house contractor where they come back and say, by the way.
SPEAKER_01
00:30:06
Well, you wanted the porcelain fixtures, right? No. We do offer revisions at the end. If you want changes to it, we can do those. And those are 30 minutes, but we talk about it. And that's just if you got the project back and then all of a sudden you're like, you know what would really be cool? Some smoke. Okay,
SPEAKER_01
00:30:25
well we can add that. Just tell us where and we'll put it in.
SPEAKER_00
00:30:29
Yeah, absolutely. All right. So it's pretty straightforward. You buy the package and you go from there you're contacted from with book brush you fill out the forms or how and then you actually drop in
SPEAKER_01
00:30:41
so you'll notice it when you go into book brush the next time down on the left -hand side it says hourly concepts so you can shop around from there when you have hours you'll be able to see them and then you can request projects whenever you want to okay okay very
SPEAKER_00
00:30:57
cool very cool we wanted
SPEAKER_01
00:30:59
to be easy and user -friendly so they'll just drop in and then you fill the form. And the other thing that's nice is you can look at the form and not submit. It doesn't deduct any hours, but you can think about, like, what am I going to put in there? Because it helps,
SPEAKER_01
00:31:14
you know, the more you tell us. And really, I think this is because working with authors, you guys are so good at writing, you can write us a little book about what you want to see in your book trailer, and then we will bring it to life.
SPEAKER_00
00:31:25
Exactly. Take your time, write it up, the more details, the better. Yeah, yeah. Honestly, that's good to note to people too, because I think the disconnect a lot of times is between writers and graphic designers and like whether it's your book cover whatever the author does need to put a little thought into what they want right like you cannot go to a designer and be like make it for me like they need some sort of what is well we didn't read the book so we don't
SPEAKER_01
00:31:56
know how much blood there is or how steamy it is or whatever the case may be. So we need to know if you picture
SPEAKER_01
00:32:05
handcuffs and some police lights, or if you have a rolling meadow and a mountain view. So those things you'll need to give us a little direction, and then we can certainly bring it to life for you. Yes,
SPEAKER_00
00:32:14
yes. So it's a little bit of work on the author's side, but it's also, honestly, it's work that they probably should have already done, or have already done. True, true. there. So is that the entire that is the what's that called on the that's called the hourly concepts?
SPEAKER_01
00:32:35
Yep that's called hourly concepts and I'll make sure we have special links for you to put in the notes for that to show folks that and then the other service that we've been offering here lately is the full service social media management so I was going to jump into that unless you have any other questions on the Hourly Concepts side.
SPEAKER_00
00:32:55
Let's talk about the full service. What that...
SPEAKER_01
00:32:59
So this is for social media management. This is basically for those folks who are so busy writing but they need to be well branded out there on social media and they're not necessarily because they don't have time. So we would literally take the wheel and handle your social media posting. So we post on Instagram and Facebook, we post six times a week and we are creating unique content for you. So because we're established in the author niche and we follow a lot of trends and things like that, like if people are posting those adorably flirty arrows with tropes called out, then we will do the same. You know, those kinds of graphics, they're created just for you and in a folder that you can access later. So it's extra content for you down the road. Of your six posts a week, two are gonna be reels. So you've got those. Those are great because bones are vertical. People are watching those and they're just a different kind of grab for people. You'll also have access to those after. So if you want to post for YouTube or TikTok, there's extra content, two pieces of content per week that you could use over there too. The consistency is important.
SPEAKER_01
00:34:14
You know, I know people are probably not sitting there saying, well, did Kat post today? But if they're used to you posting daily, it's like that warm hug. And if you think about, it's almost like a job interview. Like if I was interviewing for a job, people would come check me on social media. If people want to read my book, they're going to come look for me on social media. If I don't have anything out there or I don't have much, like, you know, when a friend tells me about a book, what do I do? I look at the author on social media. If I'm wowed by the branded content and it looks really cool, okay, yeah, let me engage. So I think that's what we want to bring to the table for authors who are busy writing, they're putting out tons of books. Maybe their social media doesn't match where they're at with, you know, the number of books they have out there. Let us bring that along for you.
SPEAKER_00
00:35:02
Yeah. Yes, because let me tell you, so many times trends come and I'm like, oh, got to get on the trend. I got to do something. So it's, it's not even that I dislike it. It's just a lot. It's, it's a lot. Well, in
SPEAKER_01
00:35:20
six days a week, the consistency, um, and we also dedicate an hour a week, which ends up being like 10 minutes a day engaging and answering the comments. So that way there is that consistency of that part too. So we hope that with creative content and consistent posting and us watching the trends and SEO and hashtags that there is more chatter and there is more interaction. But if you're not answering that, then it may not continue. So what we do is follow the same pattern of the author. So you're a hashtag answer, or if you like emojis, we'll throw them in there. If you're looking to say, bro, thanks, we will put that kind of comment. So old soul lingo will have that kind of lingo, learn your lingo. So getting in there and just making sure there's interaction and engagement that continues. Okay. Go ahead. Sorry. Oh, and we track how it's going. So if there's something that was hot, hot, we will do that again. If it was not, then we
SPEAKER_00
00:36:22
wouldn't do that. Well, that's another
SPEAKER_00
00:36:24
thing. Yes. You should be tracking what worked and what didn't work. Yeah. And this is where like it gets so complicated, right? Because if you are so everyone has their different reasons why they're always running behind in America. But I have three kids and the writing and the coaching and the podcast and that is my excuse for why I'm always running behind. But you're bringing up a valid point of like that I admire authors where they're constantly talking about their book. And my personality finds that really hard. Like just thinking of, it seems easy, right? When you look at other authors and you're like, yeah, I could, I could do that. And a lot of times I'll sit down to make graphics and be like, I don't know what I'm doing.
SPEAKER_01
00:37:13
So
SPEAKER_01
00:37:13
we will meet with the author and learn their vibe and their aesthetic, and then we will take the wheel. And it's also just creating a story. So it's not just sell, sell sell because that could be off -putting. So there will be graphics with a call to action and selling and talking about your book, but if your book has a seaside then we may just have an image with a seaside type of scene with a quote or if there's quilts we'll have that with just some wording from the book. We create ten different log lines and things per week and then rotate them through so there's also just a bit of a storytelling element not just buy the by the book, by the book. Right,
SPEAKER_00
00:37:53
right. Which can really be the disconnect there because it does take energy. It takes creative thought and energy to put that together where it's like the sales copy and then the story copy and then the just like talking and interacting. It's so many things.
SPEAKER_01
00:38:10
Yeah, so that's why we want to help authors who, you know, they know they probably want to be out there more but it just isn't happening and it's the thought like someone
SPEAKER_01
00:38:20
else can do that and then if you do sign in it's humming along how nice is that
SPEAKER_00
00:38:23
yes yes no kidding oh my goodness you you almost have me sold here yeah
SPEAKER_01
00:38:29
so i do have this is that's a longer process so we don't that's not just something you hit the buy button we do a consultation we meet with you so i'll make sure you have our calendar linked so folks can sign up for just exploring how that works or look more at that we start off with a consultation meeting and go through because it's That's something people have a lot of questions about before we would get all signed up. Sure. And then we go from there.
SPEAKER_00
00:38:54
Okay. Okay. So if somebody is thinking like maybe their book just came out or they're just starting out, like maybe six times a week sounds like a lot to them. Is there, is there a reason behind why you guys do six times a week, post six times a week?
SPEAKER_01
00:39:10
Yes, because the consistency and all that, like it's, so we track your number of followers and your reach and your engagement. And it's harder to do with just the sporadic posting and just to kind of take a step back. So followers, I think we all figure out those are the people who followed. The reach are the people who walked by and looked in the window. And then the engagement are the people who opened the door and came into the shop or that kind of thing. So we want those to both increase but we could increase your reach all over the place but if nobody engaged that didn't get you where you wanna be.
SPEAKER_01
00:39:42
It's like you could drop leaflets from an airplane But if no one picks them up, then you really didn't, you didn't engage anyone. So I think the reason that we're posting six days a week. So we can really get a feel for how that's going and people are expecting it. And your super fans or your rabid fans are going to engage because they're seeing consistency posting. It's not like they don't expect like, oh, is there gonna be one today or I don't think she posts much. You know, it's always there, like clockwork. There's your brand loyalty.
SPEAKER_00
00:40:14
Yeah, and you almost can't find rabid fans, right? Like, I mean, I don't know how many times I see an author as I'm scrolling, like, oh, that looks like a great book. And then if you don't engage, which many times I'm like, oh, I have to go do something else. It's hard to find that person, right? Unless they pop up again.
SPEAKER_01
00:40:32
So I do agree with what you're saying. It might be a lot if you have just one book and that's the only thing that we can post about. but we do have some folks who have several series or we're working through their backlist and we work with them each month to see either if they've got a new release, then obviously we're gonna ramp that up, but we may work backwards on some other things. So it does suit folks who have several books for sure. Yeah,
SPEAKER_00
00:40:54
well, I would even say for anyone, so a couple of weeks ago I interviewed a new author and the reason, I mean, I usually have people on
SPEAKER_00
00:41:01
who have published at least three books, but because he had done such a great job engaging on TikTok, his debut book was super successful, just like incredibly, like he became full -time author, boom, one book. And it took that consistent posting for, and he said he gave himself nine months to do it, but nine months is nothing in the scheme of life if you can become a full -time author with one book. And of course he had like the the next one, almost ready to go. And then the third, but like, but that's consistent. And it was six times a week, you know? Yep. So the
SPEAKER_01
00:41:42
consistency is what gets you that loyalty, I think. And that's why we would wanna be there. And we're watching the times and see, so we can tell in the, we would schedule it and you're only about a week out
SPEAKER_01
00:41:55
because you don't wanna be too far cause things change. But we can see in the Meta Business Suite, what are your best times, your optimal times when your particular fans are engaging, because the people who read your books might be looking at a different time than people who read these other books. So we've got different, you know, I don't know. Who says the people that read Sweet Cozy Romance look at their phones at a different time than the people reading the thrillers? I don't know. But they can tell us that, that a business can tell us that. All things, yeah. So it can just help you. Maybe that's what people scroll at lunch or wherever your fans happen to be. And those are the best times we get the most reach and potential engagement, then those are the times we're gonna hit moving forward.
SPEAKER_00
00:42:36
Sure, sure. And I was actually talking to someone yesterday about this and like, it's a constant frustrated talk. Like if anyone that has a couple books out, I'm sure the majority of them are with me on it,
SPEAKER_00
00:42:49
where it's just like, it's coming up with ideas, then it's actually following through on them because I don't know how many times I have an idea and I just haven't had time to do it. But then in the idea realm, my friend yesterday was like, yeah, but you should also be talking about yourself. You should also be talking about your passions. You all, you can't, like you said, you can't always be sales, right? It can't always just be about your book. Like your fans are looking for more. I like, oh, that's so much.
SPEAKER_01
00:43:16
Well, you are your brand. So you also need, if that's what people are looking for, I was just doing a session on animated email signatures, which is something else you can make in book brush, but we were talking about those. I'm like put yourself on there because you are your brand. My hip tip there, this is such a fun random thing. In book brush, if you bring in your picture of yourself, I'm like get a picture of yourself in a white t -shirt. Okay, here's why this is awesome. Each time you're making something different, you can make yourself in a holiday top. So if you need a shamrock on it, just lay it on if you need hearts all of a sudden every holiday you are on point and somebody put in the comments of the webinar everyone's off to buy a white shirt but it's not anything like out maybe it's a little outside the box it's not hard to do but it's just thinking like oh most people probably have a white shirt and then you just put that thing on there it looks really cool
SPEAKER_00
00:44:09
yeah and i had not thought of that at all not
SPEAKER_01
00:44:13
a lot people did i got a lot of ooh in fact i may do YouTube video just on that because it's really kind of different.
SPEAKER_00
00:44:20
Well, and that's where it comes in, right? Like, if you are in the graphics area, if you're in Book Brush, you're talking to graphics people, you're always interacting, Kathleen, with other authors. That's where your brain is going to brainstorm, right? And just the author sitting in their office or their closet or wherever they're allowed to write, they're not in that atmosphere of like... Well,
SPEAKER_01
00:44:41
they're writing in their book. They're plotting their story. or maybe they're panting, whichever they are. Maybe they're panting their story, but either way, they've got to get that book done so they can get it to the editor on time. They don't have time to think through these other things.
SPEAKER_01
00:44:54
That's why we try to get creative on
SPEAKER_00
00:44:56
our side. That's amazing because that I think is where the brain, I always feel like it has to click into a whole different mode of thinking, right? Like I'm doing my book here and now I have to go into Instagram here. and all I can think about is like stuff pertaining to oh my gosh I didn't write enough today or my book which isn't great either right like you have to have other graphics so so what what what made you guys start doing like because you started out as a DIY what made you start doing things for authors is because of people like me complaining how hard it is.
SPEAKER_01
00:45:37
The tend to take us where we should be, whether we know it or not. You know, we sit around and think up what we're going to do next, but then it's also a function of what the authors ask for. You know, they wanted to be able to, you know, do these different things. Originally, we didn't have a way to create your own covers in Book Brush. Guess what authors wanted? They wanted to be able to create their own covers, so we also have a cover creator. And then, you know, they like using the tools, but they were like, that Amazon A +, I'm not real sure. And so we're like, you know, we could have designers that do that kind of thing. We have designers. They're creating the templates and things like that anyway. So we really just want to be there for authors in all different parts of their writing journey and walks. And there's so many, it's a wide range. And so wherever you are in
SPEAKER_01
00:46:26
that journey there's probably something book brushy for you and that's where we want to be so I think that's why we just thought we could help more people.
SPEAKER_00
00:46:34
Yeah absolutely so if somebody's thinking that they want to so for the the social media management you sign up for a consultation first before yeah cuz it's
SPEAKER_01
00:46:44
just so involved like there's a lot to talk about to see if you'd want us to do it we love doing those it's with me so I'll make sure you have the calendar and social media management page right at the bottom says book a call so you can um hop in with me and we can explore we um have groups starting each month so we you know get people set up because we have to have time to meet with you make sure it's not like oh how about tomorrow uh we'll take over nope we want the graphics ready to make sure they're on brand for you we've learned about you enough about you that it will feel like a seamless fit not somebody just playing over
SPEAKER_00
00:47:19
there okay and And so with the call, is that free? Yep,
SPEAKER_01
00:47:23
free call, yep. So just you would hop on our, it's a Calendly link and you can book a session with me so we can just talk through how it would go and the pricing and all that stuff. So it's 4 .99 a month and it starts with a three month contract because we can't just do it for a month and see enough movement, you need to track it. And we get all involved, we become you a little bit, not in a creepy way, but we want to know enough about you that we can make it really reflect you and your brand and bring you along to where you deserve to be on social media.
SPEAKER_00
00:47:59
Yeah and honestly you know that that gives you the time to to see what are the what are the results of it what has changed because because of it like if you can't post consistently six times a week what what might change if you actually could like.
SPEAKER_01
00:48:16
Well, think about, it's the part that you can't measure. Some people are like, well, I'm not sure I get a lot of sales from social media. But you don't know how many people looked and thought, oh, there wasn't really anything. And having that brandedness out there, it's just so cool. And you don't want to miss out, like you could just be missing out.
SPEAKER_00
00:48:38
It's very true. Like we do have assumptions, right? Well, social media doesn't sell anything. Well, I don't know.
SPEAKER_00
00:48:45
I've talked to quite a few authors now through TikTok and not through selling through TikTok, but becoming present on TikTok, they sold books that most likely would not have reached the sales that they reached without it. It difficult to measure in a group setting. You definitely have to see that for yourself. It's an investment in your business of like, what moves the needle, and you need the data. Data to me is very boring, but you cannot deny that that is the only real way to make a decision on whether it's worth it, right?
SPEAKER_01
00:49:23
Mm -hmm, yep, so that's why we do a three -month contract to start, so you have enough time to see the changes and the growth, and it's exciting, plus just watching the magic happen and you didn't do the things. I mean, you gave us the covers and the fodder and some of that but then having it just rolling along it's really cool.
SPEAKER_00
00:49:42
Yeah absolutely and the reels oh my gosh if you make reels.
SPEAKER_01
00:49:45
Yes yes we do and they're cool and you know people just engage with those differently because you know the music all that together it's good stuff.
SPEAKER_00
00:49:54
It is it that sounds very interesting. So does somebody have to be a customer of Book Brush as like a DIY of the software to to hire you for the social media management?
SPEAKER_01
00:50:08
Super good question and the answer is no. You can be in any of those without the other because who knows what's the right fit. So if you aren't using Book Brush for DIY because you just don't have the time to do any of the things yourself, you might be the perfect person for the social media management because that's why you need us to do those things. Maybe, I mean, there could be a variety of reasons,
SPEAKER_01
00:50:31
but the answer is you could have any pieces a part to those. We will love you wherever you come in.
SPEAKER_00
00:50:36
Yes, that's good. That's good to know. We come in crying. So for their their first consultation, what should they bring with them other than themselves? We
SPEAKER_01
00:50:48
have them when they book it give us their existing Facebook page and Instagram page if they have it already so that we can kind of get a feel for that and just bring their list of questions like how would this work and I talk through all that then if they're interested in moving forward our next call we actually create some of the sample content that would be branded for them so the first one is learning a little bit more about them.
SPEAKER_00
00:51:15
Okay, okay. So they just
SPEAKER_01
00:51:17
bring themselves their smile open mind and I just need to know you know more about like what if they have a release coming up what their timing might be what we should focus on for if they're interested in continuing for the next steps and actually starting out what book should we work with first so we can create some of those images so I think that helps you decide yeah I want to do it because I saw those and they looked really good I
SPEAKER_00
00:51:42
mean yeah absolutely okay
SPEAKER_00
00:51:44
cool so and you said that they have to like the timelines about a month like into the new month? So
SPEAKER_01
00:51:53
we start them, they would start just so it's not like, oh Kat was on the 8th and this person was here. They all start on the first of the month. But what we've been doing is lining people up for like two -week trial on the 15th of the month. So we're kind of doing little classes in bunches so that it seems very organized. And I feel like that instills some confidence in the authors coming in so it doesn't feel like a rush process. It's like, oh okay, I've seen my samples I want to go for the two weeks and then within that two weeks and they can decide if they're gonna do the contract and it's pretty smooth. Okay. Nobody feels rushed and stressed out because you know we have like a little video to show you how to give us access to your Facebook and your Instagram. Not everybody knows how to do that. I mean you may not even know your password. Hopefully you have it somewhere but you know like we need access to that
SPEAKER_01
00:52:43
but we don't want you up at midnight rushing to get that done. So there's video on how to give us access and we need to get access and we learn about you and move the process. So, you know, we take calls all throughout the month because different people have releases at different times. So it's never a bad time to chat about it and then we can see what the next dates and openings are.
SPEAKER_00
00:53:04
Okay. And would you recommend like if they have a book coming out, I guess they kind of need a couple weeks at least to get it really moving, right? So if you have a book coming out, you might want to book a call soon.
SPEAKER_01
00:53:19
Sooner rather than later. So we can see what would be a good fit. Um, and if, because to do a big ramp up, you know, you can promote a book for months beforehand. I mean, you're, you're a guy with a nine months on Tik TOK, right? So, I mean, um, it just depends. Uh, but definitely sooner rather than later. So we can just see how the fit would work in there. Or they have the first one set, but they don't know the dates of the next ones. We can work through those kinds of things or work on their backlist in between.
SPEAKER_00
00:53:49
Sure. Sure. And then what if somebody is sporadic in posting and they still enjoy posting? Are they like not allowed to touch anything anymore or are they allowed to go on no.
SPEAKER_01
00:54:01
They can still.
SPEAKER_01
00:54:02
And this is another thing about you or your brand. So you have a couple options. If people like to see your cat pictures or you in your Halloween costume or if you have a really nice dinner. Some authors post about that. You still can't. So you retain the ability to do that or we have a client drop folder that you can put in if you want us to post that it's your birthday. We can do that too. It would just that be your post for the day when you want it in there. So we usually need you know just like for when we're preparing your content for the next week or two if you want something you would let us know. And I guess we could put post your cat pictures too. But that seems like something you might want to just do it. Yeah, that's what your readers have been and your followers love about you. That's authentically you. You can still put those things in for sure.
SPEAKER_00
00:54:51
Sure, sure. So I would just encourage people if you find that part easy, like posting about your life and your cat and that's part of your brand. But you find selling your book or talking about like, I don't know that it just, it seems to be this thing with authors of like, I could talk about everyone's book. And I feel we're talking about my own. That's probably where you would hand it. Let us talk about your book. Yes. And
SPEAKER_01
00:55:13
do it in such a nice way that's creating a story. So there are other graphics. And words like maybe it's just like no one knew they were there with a suspenseful image, you know, that might pertain to that book and it builds some excitement. And if you know, you know, you know, you're watching and you're like, Oh, that that or you're looking at it it makes sense but it's not just like a hot sale like buy now buy now you know so
SPEAKER_00
00:55:40
we'll mix it in I love that I love that so those are very cool things for 2024 do you guys is there anything else you want to talk about before we know I think
SPEAKER_01
00:55:48
those were all my everything on my post -it note we did
SPEAKER_00
00:55:52
yay so it's it's the beginning of February so it's definitely not too late to get your social media or your a plus content or maybe make a book trailer. You know, maybe if you need to start out smaller, you do the hourly concepts. If you want to go big, book that consult for the social media management, and we'll have all the links below in the show notes. Thanks so much for having me on today. Well, thanks Kathleen. Always come back whenever Book Brush makes new things because we want to hear about it.