Reading time: ~2 International Literacy Day minutes 📖
Welcome back to the Weekly Book Business Brief—your weekly shot of strategy, tools, and real talk for authors building a book-based business.
Happy International Literacy Day, Reader! It's a real thing (who knew?, it's today, and it is absolutely my kind of holiday. 📖
Before I dive in, be sure to check out my interview on RepTalk with Casey Boggs. We chat about how a book helps you to set up and manage your reputation. We also explore the connection between having a book and one credibility and influence. Want people to trust you, recommend you, and ultimately engage you? This can give the insight you need!
I hope you had a few minutes this past week to claim your Amazon Author Page and turn on that glorious Follow button. Reminder: that button gets Amazon to email your reader when you publish something new … which is wonderful, and also means Amazon owns the relationship. Let's make sure you build the one you own.
📚 GROW YOUR EMAIL LIST WITH YOUR BOOK
When a reader finishes your book, what happens next? Do you gift them something that causes them to join your email list? Or do they close the book and get on with their day?
Guess what? Your book's last page is the warmest your reader will ever be toward you. They just spent hours with you, they feel like they like and trust you. And at that very moment, they're on a piece of real estate you control completely: a page in your back matter that can create a meaningful connection.
A back matter invitation turns that reader into a subscriber. A subscriber learns about your newsletter, another book they want to read, your course, workshop, and/or your podcast. Ooh, and guess what else? You don't have to pay for permission to share. It's free!
You can end with your bio and "The End." But it would serve you to add a little something powerful to your back matter.
🎯 THE 4-PART BACK MATTER BUILD
1. Pick one gift. One page, one problem solved, tied directly to the book: a checklist, a worksheet, workbook, a template, a chapter of the next book. When it solves the very next problem your reader has, it's the right gift.
2. Give it one link (or a QR code). Something short and human—yourname.com/gift. I have one for you: HonoreeCorder.com/Roadmap. (Feel free to share.)
3. Write four lines, not four pages. What it is, who it's for, what it costs (nothing!), and where to get it. Try this AI prompt: "Here's my book's topic and my reader's biggest struggle. Give me five ideas for a one-page free resource I could offer at the end of my book, plus a 4-line invitation under 75 words."
4. Put it in every format, in every book. Right after your last chapter, just before your review ask and your bio. Quick, easy, effective.
🎁 PICK YOUR ONE GIFT
Choose your reader gift this week, set up the link, add it to your back matter. That's it.
Want to wordsmith your invitation? Bring it to the monthly Live Q&A—(which is today!) because one good question can save you months of struggle. And the complete reader-to-subscriber system lives inside Publishing Ph.D. Code subscriber saves you 30%.
Marketing your book can be fun. (Yes, I promise.) In fact, it feels fun the moment you realize you're just making it easy for the right reader to find you and your book.
Don't believe me? Remember the last book you were so grateful you found? How did that happen? Hint: it started with the author marketing their book. (Ahem.)
You Must Market Your Book is the battle-tested playbook—what to do, in what order, without turning into a person who feels like they have to dance on TikTok (unless they want to), be on social media all the time, and make themselves nuts.
I actually teach you how to think about book marketing--and to make it match your available time, budget, personality, and the job of the book. Again, it can be fun.
👉 Grab You Must Market Your Book on Amazon.
Have a wonderful week building your gift page, and I'll see you next Tuesday!
To your success!
