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"Five Things" Book Promotion Plan That You Can Start Today

·39 min·3 clips

Claudine Wolk welcomes Sharon Woodhouse to discuss turning authors into profitable businesses.

This episode features host Claudine Wolk interviewing Sharon Woodhouse, author of *The Profitable Author* and owner of the consulting firm Conspire Creative. They discuss practical strategies for authors to treat their writing as a sustainable business. Sharon Woodhouse is a former independent publisher who now guides authors toward their unique paths to success. The conversation centers on a "Five Things" promotional plan authors can start immediately. Sharon emphasizes the importance of authors viewing themselves as business owners, not just writers. She advises building a simple, consistent marketing routine that doesn't overwhelm the creative process. A key recommendation is to focus on one primary promotional channel where an author's ideal readers are already active. The plan involves committing to small, daily actions that compound over time to build visibility. Sharon argues that many authors fail because they market sporadically or try to be everywhere at once. She suggests that consistency in a single area, like a Substack newsletter or a specific social media platform, is more effective than a scattered approach. An interesting insight is that marketing should be integrated into an author's weekly schedule as a non-negotiable business task. She claims that treating book promotion like a hobby leads to hobby-level results. The episode stresses that a sustainable author business balances creative work with systematic outreach. The tone is educational and conversational, offering direct advice from an experienced consultant. The style is practical and encouraging, focusing on actionable steps rather than theory. Listeners seeking a structured, manageable approach to book marketing will find concrete starting points here. Authors who prefer to focus solely on writing without business considerations may find the discussion less relevant.

As heard by us

A plainspoken reminder that authors own the daily work of promotion.

Sharon Woodhouse treats book promotion as steady work, not a burst of energy that ends when the launch week does. She is clear that agents are there to secure a good contract and advocate for the author, while publishers may promote a book or may not; the larger burden, she…

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