Latest NEWS from The Book Shepherd this week / How to increase your email open rate in your marketing?

Practical Publishing Advice and Guidance for Authors

I create books authors never have to apologize for …

In this Issue

1. Discover ... Clipping Magic

2. Meet ... Join Friday Coaching

3. Get Registered … July 11th Online Author Gathering

4. Got Questions … Get Answers … ASK Judith

5. Get Registered for Summer AuthorYOU Food Fest … Happening on August 15

6. Hot Podcasts for July … Add to your Calendar and Listen

7. Question of the Week … My Amazon Reviews Disappear. What Can I Do?

8. Smile Time … Flying Time

Are you sending out a blog? Newsletter? How about information or news of some sort to your collective emails? If that’s a YES, do you check on what your open rate is?

A 20% open rate is considered good; 28% is average; and most have a range from 15 – 25%. With that said, you should know yours. And get in the habit of doing a “resend” the next day. Plus, wait, wait there’s more. Know that if you have Gmail and Yahoo email accounts on your list, you are vulnerable for a higher rate of “no opens” … Both Gmail and Yahoo are notorious for doing the block of emails that are generated from schedulers … known as bulk email. It’s a pain.

What can you do to reduce being blocked? Here’s the tip I would start with to prevent your emails from being blocked in your marketing: Make sure you ask your followers to add your name and email to their CONTACT list … some have a designation that can be market “do not block”. Also, on your website, add to your home page a message to add your name email to theirs. Something like this:

If you have a Gmail or Yahoo email account, make sure you ADD my name and email --YOUR email address --to your CONTACTS to receive my newsletter, blogs, and special event notices ... otherwise they may go into your junk/spam folder. Thanks!

1. July 9 Podcast … How to Get Your Book Reviewed … Jim C0x

2. July 11 Author Gathering, Online Only

3. July 16 Podcast … Secrets to Writing Enticing and Killer Book Marketing Copy … Casey Demchak

4. July 17 ASK Judith

5. July 18 Barnes&Noble, Southlands

6. July 23 Podcast … How to Use the Inner Method to Soar Your Writing … Viki King

7. July 30 Podcast … How to Grow Your eMails with the Ultimate Opt-In … Judith Briles

8. August 1 Author Gathering, Online Only

9. August 6 Podcast … Author Mindfulness … Heather Elliott

10. August 13 Podcast … Building Community with Communicating …Terri Murphy

11. August 15 AuthorYOU Gathering Food Fest … Judith's Home

12. August 20 Podcast … How to Write a Movie in 21 Days …Viki King

13. August 27 Podcast … How to Write a Memoir … Dan Janal

Join Author Friendly Fridays: a fun, sharing, and dynamic closed group.

It’s a full hour when you can ask questions—any question. And I always include a few strategies to get your authoring life ahead of the competition. It’s for paid subscribers ONLY and we do it online starting at 7 am MT each Friday.

This is how each session starts: Judith Briles shares a few strategies, tips, and tools that attendees can immediately start to use.

IMMEDIATELY! All share … and ask plenty of questions. They get answers. For authors, it’s the perfect way to start a Friday. Those of you who aren’t participating, you are making a mistake. I love the variety of books and authors who have chosen to participate. What’s also fun, is the energy that can be felt with what everyone is working on. Love it!

Join in here: https://thebookshepherd.com/author-friendly-fridays/

Think of The Author Gathering as a combo MASTERMIND and personal Advisory Board for Aspiring and Achieving Authors. And JOIN AuthorU.org today. https://authoru.org/j-o-i-n

Delivered 8 months a year ONLINE for global and housebound members and 4 times IN-PERSON for those in Colorado on the of the month. July is an exception—it’s the 4th, so we will gather on the 11th.

Your host is Dr. Judith Briles, The Book Shepherd and the Author Gatherings are held two ways: on ZOOM ONLINE from 8 to 9.30 am AND IN-PERSON in her home in the southeast Metro Denver area from 9 to 11.30 am. They are a benefit as a part of the paid AuthorU.org membership. A member can bring a Guest who can attend ONE Author Gathering. After that, you must be a member of AuthorYOU.org. Bring a snack to share.

Note: there must be a minimum of 5 participants (not including Judith) registered by NOON MT the day before for any session to BE A GO. That would be July 10. If not, the session will be canceled and all members will be notified by an email announcement via Meetup.

To register for the FREE session, use this link:
https://www.meetup.com/authorgathering/

Ask Judith ANYTHING on ZOOM next Friday … think Book Publishing and Book Marketing … The Book Shepherd is YOURS for 60 Minutes!

Judith Briles is YOURS for 60 minutes on Friday, July 17 at 3 pm MT to ask any question you have about book publishing, book marketing, writing a book … or just getting a “little juice” to start your engines after the Holiday rush from the past few weeks.

Post your questions as soon as you come on … Judith will come to you LIVE and bring you on the mic to respond to YOU and possibly ask additional questions.

It’s 60 minutes to start smoke ‘em your Author Success … and why not? Grab your favorite beverage; just listen in … or ASK, ASK, ASK! It’s time to re-juice and rekindle your author energy!

Join Zoom Meeting – click on it or copy/paste
https://zoom.us/j/95000476418?pwd=SH5vWqz0SkvVIZIgnC95lHCmCAi2km.1

Password: authors

Add to Your Calendar: Friday, July 17 at 3 MT (2 PT, 5 CT, 5 ET)

My Answer: The one review shows on the eBook format. The 12 that were on the “paper” format are there … just a different page. The eBook and paper pages need to be merged to one. The best way to do this is via Author Central. Did you ever create the Author Central account? If you haven’t, do it here: https://authorcentral.amazon.com/ That’s the portal you go through to make changes happen and you will do it with a live phone call that Author Central will create.

Once you are on Author Central, go to your Author Central website/portal. Click on the “Contact” – you will need to keep “drilling down” as it as questions. Keep “clicking” to get to the spot where you click on “call” or “text” … click on CALL and you will have a phone call within seconds. Tell the individual who calls you that you have two separate pages for the same book—one for eBook and the other at for paper—and that you want to combine them to ONE. She/he has the magic want to do it.

This is how each call starts: I share a few strategies, tips, and tools that attendees can immediately start to use. All share … and ask plenty of questions. They get answers. Definitely an excellent way to start a Friday. Those of you who aren’t participating, you are making a mistake. I love the variety of books and authors who have chosen to participate. What’s also fun, is the energy that can be felt with what everyone is working on. Love it!

Here’s the link to take advantage of it and subscribe: https://thebookshepherd.com/author-friendly-fridays/

About Judith Briles, The Book Shepherd ™

Book Publishing expert Judith Briles, aka The Book Shepherd, has shepherded more than 1,000 authors and created 500 best-sellers and award-winning books. She knows publishing inside and out from both the traditional and independent sides. Judith is an advocate for authors within her blogs, podcasts and speaking engagements. What’s her pet peeve? Two words: publishing predators.

She hosts the podcast AuthorU-Your Guide to Book Publishing which generates over 250,000 downloads a month. Her website is www.TheBookShepherd, email: JudithBriles.com and phone: 303-885-2207.