Make The Most Out Of Your Awesome Gang Author Interview

Today’s post is courtesy of our friend Dave Chesson. Dave is the guy behind Kindlepreneur.com, one of the largest book marketing websites, and KDP Rocket, a software that helps authors get their books discovered on Amazon.  

Awesome Gang author interviews are a truly epic opportunity.

But do you know how to make the most of yours?

A large part of author marketing success is down to getting the most bang for your buck.

Say you write a blog post for your author website. Great job!

But why stop there? Why not create an enticing tweet, with a relevant hashtag, linking to your content? Maybe an aesthetically pleasing pin to attract the Pinterest crowd?

Author interviews are no different. There are a multitude of ways to maximize their benefits for you.

Read on to discover my tried and tested ways to experience the maximum possible reward from your Author Gang interview.

Let’s get to it!

Editorial Reviews

Every author knows the importance of reviews.

The way that readers react to your book can make or break its success.

If you’ve ever had a book launch met with a lack of reviews, or even negative comments, you know exactly how this goes.

As much as we might wish otherwise, reader reviews are outside of our direct control.

Editorial reviews, on the other hand, are not.

If you’re not currently using editorial reviews, check out this guide to Amazon Author Central to learn more.

How do editorial reviews benefit you as an author?

• Credibility.

More and more people are wising up to the fact that customer reviews aren’t always what they seem. Blackhat book marketers can manipulate them. Even when they are valid, the thoughts of some random Amazon customer aren’t always that impressive.

Editorial reviews, from a source as respected as Awesome Gang, are likely to have far more value in the eyes of a discerning customer.

• Permanence.

Online bookstores can, and do, delete customer reviews as they see fit.

By adding an editorial review, you protect yourself against this threat.

Don’t build your house on borrowed land. Practice permanence with an editorial review.

• Differentiation.

Often, a customer will face the choice between buying your book or another.

If the two books are similar in most other aspects, editorial reviews might be the deciding factor.

Picture it. You can choose between Book A or Book B. They both seem to cover similar topics to a comparable level of quality. They both have nice covers.

If they both have favorable reviews from customers, but only Book B has positive reviews from editorial sources, which do you choose?

It’s a no-brainer. Don’t miss out on editorial reviews.

Social Media

Social media can be a contentious topic among authors.

Most authors are aware that social can serve as a powerful, free book marketing channel with a potentially unparalleled reach.

Many authors also feel frustrated by the perceived inefficiency of social media promotion and the challenge of creating effective content for it.

HootSuite is an effective solution to the efficiency problem. Batch schedule your content for an upcoming time period, be a good neighbor by tagging @ourawesomegang, shorten your link, and you’re good to go.

But how can you repurpose your Awesome Gang author interview into effective social content?

• Facebook Groups.

Any Facebook group focused on books will respect Awesome Gang.

Your fellow authors will know Vinny’s earned reputation as one of the best in the business.

Readers will know that Awesome Gang deliver on their promise of sharing exciting, relevant new reads.

If you’ve had the good fortune of featuring on an Awesome Gang author interview, be sure to spread the word.

• Facebook Page.

Facebook groups aren’t the only avenue offered by Mr. Zuckerberg to share your Awesome Gang interview.

If you have a business type page for your author activities, posting a link to your interview will impress anyone casually scrolling through.

If you share it on your personal page, it shows your personal social circle that your author ambitions are really going somewhere.

• Twitter.

Aside from the Hootsuite and tagging advice offered above, there are a couple of ways you can make the most of sharing your author interview on Twitter.

Firstly, look for a relevant hashtag to include in your Tweet. Check out the recent tweets featuring the hashtag. You want the hashtag to be active, and used by the type of people you see as suitable readers of your work. You can also look at this list of best hashtags for authors.

Secondly, consider shouting out someone you admire during your author interview. Tag them in your promotional tweet. Best case scenario, they retweet you and you get exposure to their followers.

Even if you don’t get a retweet, you get to publicly respect someone valuable and hopefully get on their radar.

• Instagram/Pinterest.

Instagram and Pinterest are similar in the sense that visual content are their modus operandi.

You can use a free service like Canva to create an image quote from your Awesome Gang interview.

By posting these on Instagram or Pinterest, you enhance your reputation on those platforms, while also creating another permanent traffic source for your author interview. If you’re not sure about how to best use instagram for your book, check this out. If you aren’t familiar with using Pinterest, this one will help too.

As Seen On

Have you ever seen a graphic on an author website saying ‘As Seen On’ followed by the logos of various media organizations?

If you are interviewed on Awesome Gang, you have the honor of making them a part of your very own ‘As Seen On’ graphic.

How does this help you as an author?

• Social Proof.

Self-publishing has opened the door for a deluge of authors.

This has made a lot of readers sceptical due to the proliferation of pen names and personas.

By displaying a co-sign from someone as reputable as Awesome Gang, you instantly win trust in the eyes of a visitor.

• Competitive Advantage.

A lot of authors have a mental block when it comes to marketing.

Their identity and concept of self is limited entirely to ‘author’.

As a result, many authors don’t market at all, or don’t market to the extent where they are featured by trusted publications.

Even among the relatively small number of authors who are featured on brag-worthy blogs, an even smaller number then take the time to create an ‘As Seen On’ graphic.

Do this, and you instantly elevate yourself above the vast majority of your competition.

• Relationship Building.

In a world of single-serving friends, real relationships built on a foundation of win/win, mutually beneficial value are truly worth their weight in gold.

By featuring Awesome Gang on your ‘as seen on’ graphic, you show that you value the opportunity they gave you enough to give it permanent prominence on your own website.

Author Biography

Many author bios suffer from one of two fatal flaws:

1. They are drier than the Sahara, coming across as exhaustive resumes written by robots.
2. They are engagingly written but boringly bland, mentioning coffee, cats, and little else.

Writing an author bio should convey your charisma, but also your credibility.

Linking to your interview on Awesome Gang makes your bio certifiably credible.

Inside Your Book

Not everyone reads author marketing materials!

Plenty of readers will come across your book first. If your writing wins them over, they may want to learn more about you.

What’s the easiest way to make this possible?

Drop a link to your author interview inside your book. I favor this approach so much that I’ve even made it a key part of the front page of my Scrivener template!

So which key advantages are offered by this approach?

• Exposure.

If you’re realistic and honest about your author aims, you should want more people to read your books than to admire you on social media.

Doing this also gives a two-way flow to your author exposure.

1. People discover your books through various online platforms
2. People discover your online platforms through your books

Why would you avoid encouraging movement in both directions?

• Permanence.

If you go on your Facebook feed, and refresh it, I bet you don’t see the same content twice.

Social media posts may fade like tears in the rain, but books are forever.

• Long-Term Relationship Building.

Remember the point about how respectful it is to feature an organization such as Awesome Gang on your ‘As Seen On’ image?

Imagine how much the level of respect shown multiplies when you provide a link within your book itself.

Author Interview – Final Thoughts

There’s so much more you can do with your AwesomeGang review and interview. It can be a major addition to any of your other book marketing tactics. Just be sure to use those ideas above so that you get the most out of your efforts.

If you used your AwesomeGang review in a creative way, post below in the comments and share with the rest of the group.
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Dave Chesson is the guy behind Kindlepreneur.com, one of the largest book marketing websites, and KDP Rocket, a software that helps authors get their books discovered on Amazon.  Not only is he a consultant to publishing companies and NYT authors, he loves to break down the technical side book marketing and help review tools like Grammarly.  When he’s not working on book marketing, he loves playing dad Jedi and sipping tea with princesses with his rambunctious kids.