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The official podcast from the team at BookFunnel, hosted by Jack Shilkaitis, Kelli Tanzi, and Emma Alisyn, featuring guest interviews, self-publishing industry discussions, and tips for using BookFunnel to build an author business.
0:00: Since we're talking about face content, how cute do I have to get?
0:03: Do I have to come with at least a half face in my hair?
0:05: No, I'm serious, Jack.
0:07: Do I have to get cute or?
0:08: So, I was sitting at work minding my own business when this guy literally kidnapped me, and it turns out he's the king of this fake court called the night court kidnaps me and then locks me up in his castle, beautiful castle, still don't appreciate it.
0:22: Hey, folks, welcome to the Book Funnel podcast for any.
0:25: Get real world advice on writing, publishing, and growing a career on their own terms.
0:30: Whether you're just starting out or you're deep into your author journey, we're here to help you build your readership, boost your book sales, and connect with your audience.
0:38: Each episode, we aim to bring you insights from authors, experts, and industry insiders who've been there, done that, and then some.
0:44: My name is Jack.
0:45: I'm our lead author sports specialist here at Book Funnel, and I am joined today, as always, by my co-hosts, Kelly.
0:51: Tansy and Emma Allison, and our guest for this episode of the Book Funnel podcast, a returning guest, the CEO of Align Digital Solutions and author of over 30 books, Kate Hall.
1:04: Kate, welcome back to the podcast.
1:06: Thank you so much for having me back.
1:08: I'm really excited.
1:10: Last chat was really great, and this time I am running on like 5 hours of sleep, so we're gonna have so much fun.
1:17: It's gonna be a good one.
1:19: I can tell just from the, from sort of the the pre-show here already, I can tell.
1:23: Your, your first appearance of the book Funnel podcast was a blast, and it was loaded with information.
1:29: We talked about TikTok for authors was the whole thing.
1:32: A lot of us got a big like download from that.
1:34: I know a lot of the authors who've who've seen that.
1:37: It was like a huge download of information.
1:39: For those in the audience though who don't know who you are, I'll give you the chance real quick here to just introduce yourself, tell everybody a little bit about who you are and what you do.
1:47: Hi, I am Kate Hall.
1:49: I run, as you said, aligned digital Solutions.
1:52: We are a marketing agency for authors, but our main thing, the core of our values, has been helping authors make more money because when I got started in, you know, making money online in building a career, it was as an author like I literally, have, like, my books with me so that I can show you, cause I have two pen names.
2:14: So I have showed you two, and writing seriously changed my life, and TikTok specifically.
2:20: I know it some people hate TikTok, and if you hate watching this episode, I get it.
2:24: I also hate TikTok so much, but I'm not gonna let it win.
2:29: Like, if somebody hates me, I'm not gonna let them win.
2:32: Therefore, I have to defeat TikTok, and I have to help authors defeat TikTok as well.
2:38: So yeah, like that's the right word.
2:42: Yeah, I'm not gonna let it win and I'm also not gonna make you sing and dance either though.
2:50: But yeah, so like my author career had kind of stalled out and crashed when I got started on TikTok, and then I like started and like within a month was hitting like 5K months again.
3:00: Which was absolutely insane because by the time I like had crashed and was then like needing to start making money again, I was literally living in a shed with no bathroom.
3:08: And when I say shed, I don't mean like crappy house.
3:11: I mean a literal garden shed that had electricity, but no running water, no bathroom, no real kitchen.
3:18: We had like a crock pot we could plug in, but we didn't.
3:21: have like anything and now my family and I are getting ready to, because of all of this, we're actually getting ready to move to Europe and we're gonna be traveling Europe for a couple of years.
3:33: Yeah, we're really excited.
3:37: A real rags to riches story there is what you're saying basically excellent.
3:43: And even, even the shed was a privilege.
3:45: I can absolutely admit the shed was a privilege because it was in my mom's yard and we were able to pay like the monthly fee to have the shed and there's, there was definitely privilege in that, but it still sucked.
3:57: Yeah, yeah, yeah, well, you know, everybody needs help at certain stages of their life.
4:01: But yeah, wow, I, you didn't mention that the last time you were on here, so that's a little piece of your backstory.
4:06: That's, that's, that's really neat.
4:08: But, so, yeah, great.
4:09: Yeah, it's gonna be a a good talk here.
4:11: Before we get to the conversation though, we do wanna catch up here with Emma and Kelly.
4:16: What have you guys been up to?
4:17: We do this at the beginning of every episode.
4:19: , it's kind of like our personal accountability session when we have the podcast.
4:24: We're all authors, so like, what have we been doing lately?
4:27: We know Kate is slaying, obviously, but what, what have, what have y'all been up to?
4:31: Whoever wants to volunteer to go first?
4:33: Oh, first, So I had released the book if you haven't caught up in a while.
4:38: I released my book in August, the end of August, and my writing practice immediately stalled out because I was like, I was killing it, right?
4:46: I was writing every day.
4:48: I was because I was on deadline, and then I've just sort of, it's been a little bit of a struggle to get back to the other series that I've been working on.
4:55: And so I've been going through I'm about at the 75% mark in my draft, and that's Always where I stall out.
5:03: So I've been re-reading and re-going over what I'm keeping, what I'm taking out, what I want to get rid of, and I'm hoping that that actually sparks the last 25%.
5:14: And then I've been just playing with ads trying to get my, my ads to start.
5:19: I mean, my ads are doing great, like I'm on Facebook, stealing it, but still working on it.
5:26: So I'm hoping I get some tidbits for that too, because, yeah.
5:30: 11 brick at a time, one brick at a time.
5:32: Yeah.
5:33: You know, that's what I can't remember who, who said that or where that comes from, but yeah, just one brick at a time, one brick every day, and you'll you'll make it.
5:41: Emma, what about you?
5:42: I'm still doing post-release admin and then translations with Book shift.
5:47: That's right.
5:49: Germany is about 40% of my income now.
5:52: France is what, 19%, and the others, yeah, and see, I'm not doing KU with the translations, and I think the translations is, is the final straw.
6:02: I'm gonna take all of my US stuff out of KU in the next 30 to 90 days.
6:06: Like I, I can't do it no more.
6:08: Like that's interesting.
6:09: Yeah, it's funny as I just put my back in and yours is you're like, I'm ready to take it out.
6:14: Well, funny.
6:16: Because with bus and everything, I told you all about how I bought that bundle for $34 off of social media from the gal, and I'm sitting here thinking if she can do sell me a bundle and get $35 I can do that too, like instead of messing around with KU and trying to figure out page reads and shit I don't wanna do that no more.
6:34: Yeah, no, yeah, it's, it's funny.
6:36: I, I pulled out of KU as well, building a Shopify store.
6:40: It's in fact, it's pretty much ready to go.
6:42: I just have to like pull the trigger on it.
6:44: And then working on some new stuff that I'm going to be delivering through Patreon and and some other, some other methods.
6:50: So I'm, yeah, I'm, I'm taking a different approach than I have been, and I like what you said about it's encouraging to hear that like translations outside of KU are having a big impact.
7:02: I'm not even, I have like some drip ads.
7:04: AMS, but they sell in Germany the way books used to sell on Amazon US before they made everything pay to play.
7:14: So I'm like, get it now, but you mentioned shops, Kate, don't let us forget to talk about TikTok shops.
7:21: Everything you see behind me is my TikTok shop.
7:24: Sweet.
7:25: I wanna, I wanna know all about how that works when we get to that.
7:28: Yeah, we should spend some time on that for sure.
7:30: I was actually gonna say, is anyone selling their books on TikTok shop?
7:33: I've heard it's great.
7:35: Not, not, not yet, not yet.
7:37: I, I know there is an upcoming book funnel feature that I'm really excited to use on TikTok that I think so we can maybe talk about that, Kate, and I can, I can tell you about that and get your live reaction to it, and then how it fits in with all that, like live streaming on TikTok and whatnot.
7:55: Anyway, we'll, we'll, we'll get to all of that.
7:58: I know last time, like I said, we had you on here to talk specifically about TikTok and more about like, how you, you post content on TikTok and that sort of thing.
8:07: Obviously, it's it's been a few months since you were on, in fact, I can't remember exactly.
8:12: It was one of our earlier.
8:14: It has been actually, yeah.
8:15: It's been a minute.
8:16: I think it was, it was shortly after I broke my arm.
8:19: Or was it before I broke my arm I can't recall a broken arm or a broken arm.
8:24: Yeah, I don't think you did.
8:25: So it might have been before a year then I broke my arm like a year and a month and a half ago.
8:31: OK, well, yeah, well, see, that's what happens when you're when you're a man, I have, I have young kids, so my memory is shot.
8:37: I just had you on 5 minutes ago.
8:39: Oh yeah, you were just here yesterday.
8:41: 16.
8:42: Right, right, right.
8:44: But obviously since then some things have shifted when it comes to social media, and I know that's one of the things that you wanted to talk about with us today.
8:52: So how have things changed since the last time you were here?
8:55: Just social media in general, I imagine things have changed on TikTok, but I imagine they're changing on other platforms as well.
9:00: Actually, everything is the same and it's easy.
9:03: , so just do, no, I'm kidding.
9:06: No, it's changed a lot.
9:07: Last time I was on here, I was talking about do these 35 slide slideshows, right?
9:11: That was like the big thing, and that worked really well for a solid 2 years, and those were a fantastic 2 years for a lot of authors, but because a lot of authors have been, and not all, but a lot of authors have been abusing the system and putting spicy scenes in those slideshows and just like really, really heavily censoring them.
9:33: TikTok has been really, really cracking down.
9:35: There are some authors, slideshows still were great, good, wonderful.
9:39: Love that for you, but for the majority, slideshows have kind of stopped working.
9:44: Whether they are the two slide slideshow trick that got really popular this spring, or if it's the 35 slide slideshows.
9:52: I never want to say slide slideshows ever again.
9:54: That's horrible.
9:56: What's the difference there between, cause I know you detailed that that 35 slide.
10:01: So the two slides is usually like a screenshot from the book and then like another page or it's like a hook and then the next page is a screenshot from the book, and then people like if they scroll past the hook on the first page, then they're more likely to read like the full length and be on that post for longer.
10:18: So a lot of things have changed and there's a lot of reasons for it, but a big one is because TikTok is getting really strict on book talk because so many authors and book talkers are like, I'm gonna post.
10:31: A like censored and code worded to hell version of this extremely explicit scene despite it being against TikTok's terms of service.
10:40: Don't get me wrong, I love a spicy book.
10:42: My books are so spicy.
10:43: Actually, part of my advertising with this one is that 20% of the book is spicy scenes, and it is weird spicy, y'all.
10:50: If you, if anybody here reads Monster Romance, get it.
10:54: All right.
10:55: There you go, Emma, let me go.
10:58: So, like, I'm not anti-spice, but TikTok is, and I'm very pro, I'm pro learning how to market your dang books.
11:07: Also, you might notice I'm better at not cussing than I was last year.
11:10: I've improved, mostly because a lot of the conferences I go to, they're like, we can't have you cussing all over the place, and I'm like, but it's so fun.
11:22: Those don't sound like very fun conferences.
11:24: Well, it's just because some people are sensitive about it.
11:28: Yeah, no, I get it.
11:30: I actually just on a tiny tangent, I spoke at NIC recently and they were like, you can have like a little cussing, we just couldn't have cussing in your like title for your like for the name of your panel because my original name for my like workshop for my session at Nin, which they were like, we can't make that your title.
11:50: The original name of it was unfuck your TikTok.
11:54: I want that book.
11:56: I want that book.
11:58: Yeah, I know.
11:59: I know what that means.
12:00: That's the thing is that word in that context is actually doing its job and telling you.
12:05: It was fantastic at that and actually a different conference did let me use that as my title, and I like forgot that it was my title.
12:11: So when I showed up and like walked in the room to do my speech, I was like, how much cussing I'm on.
12:16: allowed to do and they were like, well, the name of your session is unfuck your TikTok.
12:20: So we kind of expected it, right?
12:22: But they told me like, just keep the cussing to a minimum.
12:26: So I was like, so it's like PG 13 rules.
12:28: I get like one big cuss word, and they were like, yes.
12:30: And so in the microphone I went, motherfucker, and then kept going.
12:35: Are you coming to Author Nation?
12:37: I am not.
12:38: I was not invited to Author Nation, but I'm also gonna be living in Germany by the time Au Nation comes around.
12:45: So I'm like, you'd be really fun drinks.
12:47: I'm like, we gotta get together, girl.
12:49: Fun fact, I'm this fun despite the fact that I don't drink.
12:54: Yeah.
12:54: Yeah.
12:57: this is 100% sober here.
13:00: This is sober Kate.
13:02: So I'm actually a very fun person and so anyway, back to like the actual point is TikTok and but speaking of not being able to, you know, cuss 80 times in one sentence, so like with TikTok, they've gotten a lot more strict and so because so many authors were just trying to sneak around the rules and put an explicit spicy scene in their slideshows to sell their books, which like, yeah, sex sells, whatever the problem is then.
13:32: It kind of ruined it for everyone.
13:34: So TikTok was like, OK, we're just going to like really suppress views on anything on book talk specifically that's slideshows, anything that's book related, if it's a slideshow, we're going to start suppressing views.
13:47: And again, some authors, they're still doing it and sometimes you'll scroll and still see like the most like absolutely.
13:54: messed up, raunchy, spicy scene that like, even if you are very anti-religion makes you be like, maybe I need to go to church.
14:02: And like, sometimes people will get away with that, right?
14:05: But don't depend on you being able to get away with it.
14:08: And don't depend on being able to get away with it for a long time, because that can screw up your income if TikTok is like, hey, we noticed that you are posting very Interesting ways of naming body parts and that's all that your content is about.
14:22: We noticed you've been doing that a lot.
14:23: We're going to just ban your account and they might even ban your device or something that is a thing they can do.
14:29: They can shadow ban a device.
14:31: So if you create new accounts on your phone after one of them gets banned, you'll get very low views on the next account because they're not, they can't trust that account, yeah.
14:40: Is there like a master list of words you can't use because I was doing some posts the other day.
14:45: I'm like, can I use blood and kill and murder?
14:48: I'm like, I'm not sure.
14:49: Like, you can't use blood and kill and murder.
14:51: Void, if you're talking, you have a lot more that you can say.
14:56: You can say the word hand without TikTok being like, I know what you do with your hands.
15:00: You can't use that word, but Or like as a generality, murder, kill, killed died, and then sexual body parts.
15:11: We're not going to be talking about.
15:14: Wieners and what the lady did that I shan't say for YouTube, We're talking about hot dogs YouTube.
15:24: We're having a bonfire.
15:27: So, so I guess, so one question I have then is, so with some of these, these people ruining it for everybody else on TikTok is, is the best course then to like you said, unfuck your TikTok and try to figure it out, or has the pivot been for some people going to some of these other platforms?
15:43: What's, what have you, what have you seen there?
15:45: So, there are a few things.
15:47: So what I have started doing because when I started the whole TikTok for authors thing, I was like, cause it has, I think Emma took my original course, I can't remember.
15:57: I know you took my recent workshop that I did that was all about making face content.
16:02: You signed up for it.
16:04: That's what counts.
16:05: You plan on taking it.
16:08: Yes, I bought it and it is sitting in my tab right now staring at me.
16:15: So I'm in your tab staring at you like, just 200.
16:20: Why have you not opened to me yet?
16:22: I'm like, I don't know.
16:23: I don't know why I haven't opened to you yet.
16:27: But yeah, so basically when I made TikTok for authors originally, that's my original course, it's still available.
16:32: It still has a ton of useful information, and you guys get a discount for being book funnel or whatever, etc.
16:37: But the point is when I started it, I was like, not all authors are comfortable showing their face.
16:42: And so I'm going to have the big section on making face content and making viral content and doing content well using your face.
16:50: But then I'm going to have some sections on not using your face.
16:53: And so then my course went viral and people were like, yeah, Kate Hall has this TikTok course that's all about slide shows.
17:00: And I'm like, it's not all about slideshows, that's just all people want to do because it's easier, but they're starting to die off.
17:09: So I might even put like a little disclaimer and be like, these don't work anymore, do the other shit.
17:15: Sorry, do the other darn day stuff.
17:20: Like, I feel like the first Avengers movie when they're like making fun of Captain America for using a bad word.
17:30: Does this stuff ever cycle around, cause you know, like how fashion will cycle around 10 or 20 years.
17:35: Do you ever see a time where TikTok will be like, OK, we're lifting tentatively the ban on slideshows and you can slip on through, or is it just done and over?
17:44: With, OK, so I know there's, there's a rule about not getting political, but a lot of what's going on with TikTok is inherently political because if anybody doesn't know, the US has been Trying to ban TikTok for years and said that TikTok needs to sell to a US company.
18:01: I think it's all bull.
18:02: I know that for a fact that all of the Congress members who brought it up, everyone who brought it up and talks about it, have massive campaign donations from Meta and Google, who own Instagram, Facebook, and YouTube.
18:13: TikTok's main competitors that like can't compete against how good TikTok's algorithm is, right?
18:18: We know this, we know that it's all bull, but The reason we haven't seen this cycling around is specifically because TikTok has been like really, really tightening their restrictions because of trying to not get banned and now this potential sale to a US company that is supposed to go through in the spring.
18:36: There was supposed to be a new app for the US September 5th that never happened, some some stuff, OK, like it's all just been, it's been a whole thing.
18:45: Yeah, I was gonna ask actually about that because it just seems, it's hard to find the news that actually of of of the sale and what might happen with that algorithm.
18:55: And then there was the outside the US only app and what that would look like.
19:01: If you were US, if you're in the US or if you're in Europe, does that mean that people in other countries are not seeing US content, like what, how would that shift?
19:10: So is that something you know anything about or like, have you found any information on that?
19:15: Despite Knowing a lot about TikTok and being able to learn a lot about it, I don't have more information.
19:23: I don't have a guy that's like working at TikTok being like, OK, I got the inside scoop for you.
19:28: Like, I don't have, I don't have an inside source on anything.
19:31: I get like, I get like news notifications about the TikTok sale and TikTok.
19:38: Ban.
19:39: Basically, I don't have much more information.
19:41: I try to update people when I can, but there's not, there's not a lot of information coming out about it, which is what's really frustrating.
19:48: What back to what I was talking about with like content shifts and with doing face content or even doing like aesthetic content where you're like holding a copy of your book and you're videoing the book and you're talking to your phone while Videoing and showing off the book and all of that.
20:02: That kind of content doesn't just work on TikTok, it works on other socials.
20:07: So a lot of what I'm trying to teach right now and trying to get people to understand is you need to make content that is set up for like with a viral content strategy, not just whatever people are doing on Book talk today.
20:23: Mhm.
20:24: And you need to be posting it everywhere because say TikTok gets shut down.
20:28: OK, say that the sale doesn't go through and TikTok goes dark in the US one day and now you can't access it.
20:34: Then you've lost all your earnings if you're 100% dependent on TikTok.
20:38: So you've got to be doing these strategies and implementing these strategies and making good content.
20:45: No matter what you're doing.
20:47: Basically, no matter what you're posting, you need to use like a viral content strategy.
20:51: You need to hook people in your 1st 3 seconds.
20:53: You need to stop pausing before you start talking and then taking a breath and then introducing yourself.
20:57: Nobody cares.
20:58: And when you do that, people scroll right by.
21:01: In fact, I have friends that I follow on TikTok, and this is kind of a rude thing to say, but I have friends that I follow on TikTok that are like in the book industry, and they have taken my course.
21:13: And if they post that kind of where they're, hi, how's everybody doing?
21:17: then I will scroll before they get through the phrase, how's everybody doing?
21:21: Because I'm like, no, I'm not recording your content, you know, or I'm not rewarding your bad content, you know better.
21:27: So the important thing is have a hook that gets people to stop scrolling in your 1st 3 seconds.
21:33: Make it so that you have good quality video, good quality audio.
21:37: Kelly, you are wonderful, but your video quality because you're in such a dark room would not be ideal for TikTok as an example.
21:43: And like that that's totally fine for our, you know, for podcast recording because it's a podcast, but for TikTok I would be like Kelly, go outside.
21:53: No, that makes sense.
21:54: Yeah, that totally makes sense because it, it is, it's like looks all dim and dark and, you know, it's nice here for what we're doing, but yeah, yeah, well, and an overhead light is not enough.
22:05: You need to have good lighting.
22:07: I am.
22:08: 6 ft from the window and I've lost 50% of the light of the window that is directly in front of me.
22:14: Like I'm sitting here staring at my computer surrounded by the halo of the window on a bright sunny day where I'm at, and I'm still like, man, this lighting is bad right now.
22:24: OK, don't leave Jack and me hanging.
22:27: What about our lighting?
22:28: Yeah.
22:29: I think Emma, out of everyone, you have the best lighting because you have a very bright light near you.
22:34: I think you have like a ring light or some extra light.
22:38: Am I wrong?
22:38: Literally there's an arm length.
22:40: I have a lamp, an arm length, and then I have like a big studio halogen like 6 ft away.
22:46: So I listened to you last time.
22:48: Last time you said light, and I'm like I've got this guy.
22:52: OK.
22:53: I've got a ring.
22:56: Emma wins the lighting competition.
22:58: For sure.
22:59: Yeah, for ring lights, you really have to have like one of the big really freaking bright ones.
23:05: Yeah.
23:05: Yeah.
23:06: But, yeah, and then, see, now I'm just like, let's give a lesson about resource lighting.
23:15: I had a larger one and then it broke and so then I, I can't remember why I got this one, but yeah, it's basically a spotlight for my face and that's about all it does.
23:24: Right.
23:25: It wouldn't be ideal for socials.
23:28: Yeah.
23:28: So, even just going outside can boost your content so drastically.
23:35: Like I cannot express, like, going and walking around outside while you talk.
23:39: Like, if you're the type of person who walks around while you're on the phone, just do that except you're talking to TikTok.
23:46: What if that's like not your aesthetic, so like I write dark court politics gloomy, and then I'm outside and it's nice it's so sunny and the birds are chirping.
23:55: I'm like that's kind of not my aesthetic.
23:57: So your content isn't supposed to be about your book's aesthetic.
24:02: your, your book's aesthetic doesn't matter when it comes to your content creation.
24:06: It really truly doesn't.
24:08: What matters is The first thing people see, people need to get like they need to get hooked on your content, and they're not going to do that if your video is pixelated.
24:18: And when you are recording inside with bad lighting, your video is probably going to be pixelated, at least a little bit, and it's because you're, Like capturing thingy.
24:32: Can you tell I went to film school and know all the technical terms, but I got 4 hours of sleep.
24:37: So, your, if your ISO is jacked up basically, Hey, shutter is not gonna, it's, it's not absorbing enough actual light, so it's trying to compensate by just bringing up what it has.
24:52: OK.
24:52: And that's why we get, like, kind of fuzzy looking videos, or where, for some reason, even though you're shooting in 4K, it looks really like soft instead of being like a really crisp video.
25:04: That's useful to know.
25:05: It's all lighting then, OK.
25:07: Yeah.
25:08: So, and like, even just walking around outside while you record, there's also what's called a visual hook with that of the fact that you're doing something, people have something to focus on besides the fact that you're talking.
25:20: So, if I sit here and talk and make a video of me talking in my office, And being like, so there's this demon rock star, he was my best friend when we were growing up, but he died and then his body got possessed by a demon, and now we're doing it.
25:32: Like, if I'm talking about that, there's going to be much more interest if there's a visual hook component, which Emma would know about if she would watch my videos for the workshop.
25:43: But the visual hook can literally just, like, even if you don't want to walk around, stand up while you're recording, if you can, obviously, if you have medical issues that make it difficult for you to stand up, like, then that piece of advice is not for you.
25:55: I need, I feel like, I feel a little bit crazy on the internet nowadays because somebody will be like, OK, but what if I got hit by a train and I am completely paralyzed and wrapped in a full body cast in the hospital?
26:07: Am I still supposed to stand And walk around, and I'm like, no, apply what advice you can, dude.
26:13: Yes, yes.
26:14: But yeah, so like, even a visual hook can just be like looking through your book or, oh, wait, let me get my really good visual hook.
26:22: You guys are gonna be mad at me though.
26:24: Keep it family friendly, Kate.
26:27: It's family friendly.
26:28: It's not book lover friendly.
26:30: It's extremely family.
26:32: You guys thought I was gonna grab something.
26:36: So monster romance, hey.
26:39: Yeah, actually I had considered having something like that in the background of the video, and just not mentioning it.
26:47: OK, let me find this next post in the Facebook will be like, y'all, I got banned.
26:52: Sorry.
26:53: Yeah, so my visual hook might be like, OK, so I'm pretty sure it's this page where my character, yeah, they pissed for the first time, even though he kidnapped her.
27:02: So it is this page of this book.
27:04: I ripped it a little bit.
27:06: I'm really sorry.
27:07: Sorry about the little rip in the corner, but this is where they kiss for the first time, even though they're enemies and she is supposed to unalive him.
27:14: So like that can be a visual hook, and I'm really sorry you all look a little bit traumatized.
27:19: Jack looks like really traumatized.
27:22: I'm watching this.
27:24: It's the delay.
27:25: It's the delay.
27:27: I wasn't a prop page.
27:28: This is my, I call, I call them marketing copies.
27:31: They are, are you all familiar with the TikTok sound that's from the movie Madagascar where the little squirrel guys like you.
27:38: That's what these books, that's how these books feel.
27:42: And so you put, you put those unique copies up on your store for a higher price, right, because they're you don't because I tear them up so constantly.
27:52: I have one video of this book where I have a video where I'm recording from my phone so you can't see.
27:59: My face in the video at all, but I'm narrating over it.
28:01: And so in the video I was like, OK, so it's time to read on this nice summer day and I'm like sitting in my pool and like holding the book open like this and then this corner is constantly dunking in the water while I'm reading and then you just.
28:17: I know, and then at the end of the video, at the end of the video, I into the water.
28:22: Y'all get your author copies if you're gonna do this.
28:26: Don't like just buy it straight from Amazon.
28:28: Get your author copy.
28:29: Yeah, use your author copy.
28:32: I get mine.
28:33: I order from Ingram Spark, personally because I really like.
28:37: There are copies and I get a lot less damaged copies that way.
28:40: But if you place an order through Amazon and you get a crap ton of damaged copies, like 70 out of your 90 copies are damaged, aesthetically, that's ever happened to me, but whatever.
28:52: But if you have some that are damaged, then those can be really good ones to be your marketing copies, so you can do crap like this that traumatizes people.
28:59: Actually, I have an operations manager.
29:02: She works for me.
29:02: She does a lot of my stuff.
29:04: I call her my cape manager because she makes me do my job.
29:08: So I told her when I had to record a video, it's in that workshop that Emma's in.
29:13: I'm sorry, I keep bringing it up because nobody can sign up for it because signup's closed, but there is a video in there where I rip a page out of a book and she was like, don't do it while I'm in the room.
29:23: And so she had to leave the room for me to record that video.
29:27: So that's another visual hook, but you could also be like making a little iced coffee or something.
29:32: , you know, whatever is fine.
29:35: I'm detaching my personal mic.
29:37: OK, so instinctively, and I have not started the course yet, but I'm gonna do that today.
29:41: Instinctively when I was thinking about face content, I'm like, you can't just be in front of your backdrop for every single video, Shahara's on.
29:48: You got to get up and, you know, walk around and do different stuff.
29:50: So is that the case or can you just have like a one backdrop for all your videos?
29:55: You can just have the same backdrop for all of your.
29:57: Videos.
29:58: I just just recommend having some kind of visual hook.
30:00: Another one of my visual hooks.
30:02: Again, it's family friendly, but it's weird.
30:03: I found this guy on Amazon.
30:05: I'm a notoriously a horse girl, and I found this horse shark.
30:10: And so this is one of my visual hooks that sometimes he's just like on the desk, or he's just like sitting close to the books and people are like, is nobody going to talk about that?
30:20: What's his name?
30:21: Who is he?
30:22: What is he?
30:23: Well, it's like I've seen creators, a lot of creators will like purposefully mispronounce a word in the video to get people to comment.
30:32: You said that wrong and it helps drive some engagement in the comments.
30:37: Yeah, actually, we were talking before the recording.
30:40: My husband is an official Magic The Gathering content creator, so he was invited to Magicon Atlanta, and we, the day, two days before the convention started.
30:49: Because we were already in Atlanta.
30:51: So 2 days before the convention started, we went to the Georgia Aquarium, which was right by our hotel.
30:57: So we went there and he recorded a video and was like, yeah, I'm in, Atlanta early for Magicon, and we went to the Georgia Aquarium.
31:05: I know people aren't from Missouri when they say Missouri.
31:08: They're like, I have family that lives in Missouri, and I'm like, you're not from there though, and either your family is from the Boot Hill or you have never heard them say the name of the state they live in.
31:18: So but you talked about authors with slideshows making things bad for other authors, and I'm just thinking because I know we can do the same thing with Facebook.
31:26: Content like there's this one content creator I adore her channel, but her whole thing is she will do the co-video thing and the video she does the co-video on, they're all very suggestive, like innocent things, but we all know, you know, we all know, and then she reacts to it, and I'm like, could we get away with something like that or will that just make us not have nice things again?
31:49: So the big thing is, I'm trying to think of the best way to word this.
31:54: Slideshow content is so specific and still technically new, despite being several years old at this point.
32:01: slideshow content is new enough and it's not as commonly used.
32:06: they introduced it in 2022, like right at the end of 2022.
32:10: , and not as commonly used, so basically it's easier to ban hashtags from using that, but face content is an entirely different ballgame because TikTok wants people's faces.
32:23: They want to know that people are genuinely creating content and that it's not like with slideshows, you could post the same slideshow on 50 accounts and have people in the Philippines doing it for, you know, $3 an hour or something, right?
32:38: So.
32:39: They want to know that people are like genuinely posting, so it's easier to tell it's genuine when it is face content and that you do some amount of editing in the app.
32:48: So what I do for my in-app editing is I just have a note on my phone with my video description that I put like on the last page before you hit publish.
32:59: So I use that video description and I paste it in and then I just shrink it down really small and move it over to the side so that you cannot see it on the video.
33:07: OK.
33:07: And then I'm like, and then TikTok is like, yeah, you put words on the app, we're amazed.
33:14: Yeah, also speaking of descriptions, hashtags are dead.
33:17: Don't use them anymore.
33:18: Put keywords in your thing, but every single app is killing is killing hashtags, including Instagram, just stop using them.
33:27: That actually makes me happy.
33:28: That makes me so happy.
33:30: That's the most annoying thing of creating.
33:33: A post.
33:33: I do the post and then damn damn it, I gotta go figure out hashtags.
33:36: I hate that.
33:37: Right, I've heard about this from what I understand.
33:40: TikTok and other platforms are also like even detecting like the words that you're saying in the video and then then they're using that information.
33:48: To see, like to push it to who is interested in that type of.
33:51: Yeah, there's just so many other ways that they can figure out what the content is about.
33:56: It's not 2012 anymore.
33:57: They can figure out that the content is book content without you using hashtagbook talk based on what you're talking about in a way, yeah, that makes it so much simpler.
34:07: I like that.
34:08: Are they still doing like if you were to be talking about your book and one of the things that they had done, this was years ago when I was posting.
34:17: A little bit more.
34:18: They would, a lot of the creators were putting the actual title and the author in the first comment, and that way it wasn't on the page because they were suppressing when they knew that it was an author.
34:30: And one of the things they had done to me a few times because I had two accounts so I could go back and switch back to it, was they were blocking on my other account.
34:40: I couldn't see that comment that had my name or my book title and author name.
34:46: And people were like, what's the title?
34:48: What's the title?
34:49: Why don't authors ever put this in?
34:51: And it's because They were doing that.
34:54: Is that something that's still happening?
34:56: When you comment things that try to direct people to another site, TikTok is going to suppress that content because they want people to stay on TikTok.
35:03: So for book titles, I just put them in the in the description at this point.
35:07: I don't even care anymore.
35:08: I'm like, I'm too tired to deal with all these comments of people begging for the title.
35:13: They, they're still going to ask what the title is, even though it's right back in there, and you like show off.
35:17: I could be like an impressive proposal by Kate Hall.
35:21: Is this book in this genre and like Have it be like a sponsored post with a click link where they can click and go on Amazon and then the description says an impressive proposal, Kate Hall, and I'm still going to get comments that are like, why do authors never put the titles of their books?
35:38: I'm gonna be like, yeah, so that's the internet.
35:41: That's just the internet for you, right?
35:43: Yeah, but when you put the title in there, and when you put it and make it clear, then people can argue on your behalf on TikTok in the comment section so that you don't have to.
35:54: And like, they can say certain things that you were maybe thinking but shouldn't be saying on a public facing account, like, like, can you even read or something like that.
36:06: And then I also with my face videos, I will do like a little overlay of the book cover and I'm not going to do it like, here's the book.
36:14: I'm going to have like a little overlay where it's like just a little picture of the book right here while I'm talking and for like 3 seconds so that people can be like, oh, it's a book, and I'm using this for illustrative purposes, but I just use like a JPEG.
36:32: Now, I'm gonna take your course with this face content, like how fast for these activator people, how fast can you get started doing this?
36:39: Like with you're doing slideshows, you got to go make the slide show, you know, but is the face content just get up and start doing it or get up and start doing it.
36:48: so if you want to learn a new thing.
36:52: if you enjoy learning new things, I highly recommend using Adobe Premiere Pro.
36:56: It's a professional video editing software, like they use it in Hollywood to edit movies like Avengers and stuff.
37:04: I don't know why I keep saying Avengers.
37:05: I haven't watched a Marvel movie in a year.
37:09: It's just all I can think of, even though I've been watching all the new DC stuff this week.
37:14: So it's, it's a professional editing software, and there is a bit of a learning curve, but it has this really cool feature that I am so in love with, where it will cut out your pauses automatically and it'll cut out your filler words automatically.
37:29: And you can, when you import a video.
37:31: You can have it so that your video that you're making will automatically fit to the size of the video you recorded.
37:38: So if you record a vertical video on your phone, it will automatically size it to that vertical video and match it.
37:44: So you can do the like edit out the pauses and you can do automatic captions, and it's really nice because I just get everything done.
37:52: In Premiere, and I even do a little visual hook because I talked about don't just sit and record, but like, I like just sitting and recording, but there needs to be a visual hook, and I'm a sleepy lady.
38:01: I'm so tired.
38:03: So I just have like a little video effect that has like a little whoosh zoom at the beginning of my videos and I'm like, there, visual hook.
38:10: , but I'm still talking the instant the video starts, so the whoosh kind of interrupts my first word.
38:18: I would rather your first word get interrupted than have any sort of pause before your first word as you're talking, and you have to get to the point.
38:27: That's all I ask.
38:27: If you're like, I took.
38:28: Kate's advice and I posted today and it was all bull.
38:32: I got very, I didn't get any views.
38:34: Nobody liked my content, and then I go and look at your content and you are like, Hey, welcome to my channel.
38:40: I write books, then I am going to come to the town nearest you and invite you to fight in the Denny's parking lot.
38:48: Both reviewers on TikTok do that a lot and sometimes I want to know about the books they say they're gonna talk about, but then they do this prologue, and I'm like, I ain't got time for this.
38:58: Yeah, so if you're doing that instead of doing that, so and we still want to, if you watch my last interview, you know, I talk a lot about like picking emotional scenes for your marketing and not using blurbs.
39:09: I still say that, but we got to do it in a slightly different way because when we're talking, people are going to be like, you're just reading the book.
39:15: Why are you like if you're pulling scenes the way I told before, people are going to be like, OK, you're just reading the book.
39:20: So instead, I'm going to be like, let's say this one that I ripped.
39:24: We're going to be nice to her for a second.
39:26: So when I open my video, I might say, so I was sitting at work minding my own business when this guy literally kidnaps me, and it turns out he's the king of this fay court called the Night Court.
39:37: I didn't know if they were a thing.
39:38: I work.
39:39: Dispatch at a trucking company.
39:41: OK, I was talking to a trucker who told me that he wasn't going to go into this adult video store because that's my job apparently to know.
39:48: Well this guy shows up, walks in, knocks me out, kidnaps me, and then locks me up in his castle, beautiful castle, still don't appreciate it, and He tells me that I am his lost bride who ran away on our wedding day, and I'm like, Sir, I don't know what you're talking about or who you are.
40:04: He doesn't believe me, and then some lady shows up to talk to me and is like, Hey, so I know you're in a sucky situation and you want to go home.
40:11: We will make you extremely wealthy back on Earth, and all you have to do is unalive your husband.
40:16: , so I obviously like somebody tells me to unalive a guy, so obviously I said yeah, if you want to learn what a real book and if you want to learn what happens, you can read Night Court.
40:28: It's on KU and it's on my TikTok shop.
40:30: It's the special edition full series copies and it comes with this beautiful piece of art on Now I need the title of the author.
40:38: You didn't give me the title and the author.
40:40: And this is really, this is one of my books.
40:42: I wrote it.
40:44: Alexis Pierce.
40:46: You think I'm joking.
40:47: I'm about to go.
40:47: That's my kind of book, girl.
40:49: I'm about to go get it.
40:50: It's also my, I will say it's my least spicy book.
40:53: Out of all of my books, it's my least spicy.
40:55: It's not, not spicy, it's just my least spicy because I was like, I had written a bunch of reverse harem slash why choose books where it's one girl with a bunch of boyfriends and I was like, oh my God, I'm so sick of genitals.
41:08: now is it really?
41:10: Actually spice that sells or like tension.
41:13: It truly it's all about the tension and not like the it's truly the tension that sells because guess what, if I had told you, OK, so she's in the room with her fiance that hates her and they're finally getting down and dirty and she finds out that like, sure, like there's a million books that have spice, but when I tell you, I get kidnapped at work by this fake king and then somebody asks me to alive him and I say, heck yeah, that's when you're like, OK, I need to read this because a man kidnaps me from work and tells me that I'm supposed to marry him and somebody is like, I'll make you rich if you kill him.
41:50: Then I'm like, might as well.
41:51: Like that's where the drama is.
41:53: That's where the like, you know, what would you do type of thing.
41:57: , because you can even word it a different way.
42:00: So I might say, what would you do if you're just minding your own business at work, you work at a call center, you just got off the phone with a trucker who is telling you he's not going into an adult video store, and suddenly this big tall, scary dude comes in and knocks you out and kidnaps you, and people are going to be like, me, this is happening to me?
42:18: Is he hot?
42:20: So We still want to go for those that tension and that drama.
42:25: We want to have a little bit of relatability, but it doesn't have to be quite as relatable as when we were doing the slideshows.
42:32: We can have some kind of crazy stuff going on in these versus the slideshow strategy that I was talking about, but still big unrelatable things like I must stop the galactic.
42:44: War, people are going to be like, OK, why do I care about the galactic war?
42:48: We need to care about people.
42:50: One good example of this.
42:51: I love how Jack was like, this is going to be a very structured thing.
42:54: this interview is going to be very structured.
42:55: We're going to go over this.
42:56: And I'm like, we will go over everything, but your structure is getting destroyed.
43:00: But anyway, so like, to make people care about it and to make people want it, we need to look at like the small things in Mulan.
43:08: The animated movie from the 90s with the bisexual icon Chang and all of this beautiful animation and all of this.
43:17: It's hard for us to care.
43:20: About the war, right, because we don't, we don't really know what's going on.
43:24: We know the Huns are bad and they're bad guys and they're doing bad things, but it's hard to conceptualize and understand the horror and the tragedy of this war until they show up at this village that has been decimated.
43:38: And not only has Shang's father been killed, but they We are walking through the village and Mulan finds a child's doll on the ground, and that's, that's the heart of it.
43:50: That's the emotional part.
43:51: We need these to see these small things to care about the big things.
43:57: So if your book is about, it's this high fantasy with a lot of political intrigue and big battle scenes, we still need to see the small things and care about.
44:07: The small things in order to care about the big things.
44:11: We don't care if our main character is riding off into battle to kill all these hundreds of people unless we see how it has, how this has personally affected her.
44:21: OK.
44:22: One more technical question, Jack, don't kill me, but I really need to know this.
44:26: Like, I cannot let you go without knowing this since we're talking about face content.
44:30: How cute do I have to get?
44:31: Like, do I have to come with at least a half face in my hair?
44:34: No, I'm serious, Jack, because some days I don't want to do content because my face is not on and my hair ain't dead, and I'm like, do I have to get cute or what?
44:43: I get it.
44:43: OK, so just for reference, we are doing a podcast.
44:47: I knew this interview was coming.
44:48: I am on day 3 hair, no makeup.
44:51: , and for any men out there, they're like, what is day 3 hair?
44:55: Every woman here is like, I know exactly what day 3 hair is.
44:58: Yeah, yeah.
45:00: So I'm on day 2.
45:02: OK, there you go.
45:03: So you have long hair.
45:04: It doesn't count.
45:05: I do, I know, yeah, that's how I know.
45:10: Like, you, you don't have to get super cuted up.
45:13: You can, if you feel like you need to use a filter, you can.
45:17: And actually speaking on how cute do I need to be, because a lot of people who are looking into this for the first time are like, Kate, I'm 75 years old, and I write really super spicy, Like romantic suspense books.
45:36: Nobody wants to like if nobody wants to watch a video where I am talking as though I'm the main character and I had a one night stand with this hot ex or this hot retired Marine.
45:48: People get mad when I say ex-Marine, and I'm like, my dad was a Marine and I Don't care what the terms are.
45:53: I'm so sorry for anyone who does, but I am just like, I'm gonna say it how I say it, and I'm gonna forget.
45:59: So she's like, nobody wants to see me talk about this.
46:02: And I'm like, you're acting like your age and your appearance is a negative on this, but who do you think people are going to interact with more in the comments?
46:14: Is it going to be a cute 25 year old who's Like perfectly skinny and has her makeup perfectly done.
46:20: He's like, everybody's surprised.
46:22: I had a one night stand with this guy who was in the military, and he's so great.
46:27: Like, are we going to be surprised by that, or are we going to be surprised when a 75 year old wearing a mu is like, so last week, I had a one night stand with this 29 year old military guy.
46:40: And it's lean into it, right?
46:41: Like, exactly, lean into it.
46:44: Like, Instead of being afraid of what people are gonna say, lean into it.
46:48: It makes it so much more fun because people are gonna be like, wait a second.
46:54: This one lady that's in my workshop, actually one of the ones she posted was she was like, and this is, it's so wonderful because she is, she's older and she was like, I was really surprised by the comments because even my daughter called me to check if this was true because the video was, so I just found out that I'm pregnant with my one night.
47:14: Stan's baby, and I think she, I think she said she was 65.
47:19: I think she said she's 65 years old and her daughter called her and was like, Mom, are you pregnant?
47:24: Because somewhere on TikTok someone did do that video for real.
47:29: So now we're like, Hmm, yeah, so if you're worried that your age or your appearance and like I, I'm very good at framing my camera to be very flattering, but I'm, I'm not a small lady.
47:41: I'm a plus size.
47:42: I am a plus sized woman.
47:44: I have some curves.
47:46: So instead of worrying about the comments that are often teenage boys calling me a fat, fat, fatty whale, I'm gonna lean into cells.
47:57: Yeah, current incels actually.
47:59: Yeah.
48:00: You could be an incel and be 12.
48:01: I'm gonna lean into it.
48:02: I'm gonna look like this and be like, so I slept with a model and people are gonna be like, you did, or I'm gonna be like, so this NFL player is obviously obsessed with me.
48:13: And people are going to be like, OK, wait, I need to figure out what magic you're working because I need it for myself.
48:18: And that's why they're going to watch the video.
48:19: They're gonna be like, she doesn't look like a supermodel.
48:22: Therefore, I need to figure out why an NFL player is obsessed with her or why.
48:26: This is reminding me of this rage bait creator.
48:30: Excuse me, who was talking about how, and she does this with a completely straight face, she's like, I've been vegan for 5 years and I eat eggs every day for breakfast because I get eggs that have a vege they have a vegetarian diet, which means the eggs are vegan.
48:43: I also eat like Vegetarian fed chicken because, like, and you can just see like all the people in the comments going, that's like on both sides of the vegan issue, right, people who are like, you know, not vegans and people who are, right, cause the joke is, how do you know somebody's a vegan?
48:59: Sorry to any vegans in the audience, but this is a joke, how do you know somebody's a vegan?
49:03: They'll tell you.
49:04: And she's kind of like leaning into that, that meme and that trope, but then, like, you know, and getting tons of engagement and so I can see if that fits, obviously with what you're trying to do, yeah, just, just lean into it in a Embrace it and it would probably be more successful than if you if you took yourself too seriously.
49:25: I think too it's like the point of view thing has seems to have been like that sort of feel, seems to have been like sticking around because last time you were here, we were talking about the slideshows and it was definitely, I remember it was, you have to pick an emotion that's like loneliness, like lone, like something that makes you feel lonely and then put it in the point of view.
49:48: Yeah, so something that, that stuck with me and actually was able to use that, and I use like videos that I've been putting into ads that have been doing really well, but they are kind of a slideshow, but it's a, it's a video instead, so it's like a 2 or 3 seconds.
50:03: on the screen, each slide, and that loneliness factor I think is what is pulling in people for that ad.
50:11: So it's that and the point of view, it's you that's feeling it, you're feeling the loneliness, you are feeling.
50:19: Yeah.
50:19: Despair.
50:21: Yeah.
50:21: Yeah, yeah.
50:22: And another thing is, because I want to point out because we talked a lot about face content and I can feel people tuning out despite the fact that this is a pre-recorded thing.
50:31: So if you don't want to do face content, I highly recommend even just doing narrated content where you're showing off the book, and going through the pages and being like, oh, look at my beautiful chapter beginnings and my like chapter splits, and there's this beautiful art that comes with every book and signed like, show off a physical copy of your book while you're talking and while you're still doing these scenes.
50:55: OK?
50:56: We were talking about TikTok Shop and I know we wanted to go over TikTok Shop, and I was like, there's actually a specific thing about it I want to talk about.
51:03: So this book, I did not write it.
51:05: This is actually a book that one of my clients wrote, and she wrote it and it published last year in 2024 because anybody watching this later, this was written and published in 2024.
51:16: This is a special edition of it that I actually, she showed me the special edition during one of our sessions, and I was like, I will give you a free one on one session if you mail me that copy of that book, because it's so beautiful.
51:26: Like, it's, it's gorgeous, OK.
51:29: But she was selling and making a ton of money on TikTok shop with like her normal signed paperback copies of this book.
51:36: And because of the numbers she was running on TikTok shop with this book, and the numbers she was And on Amazon from posting just TikTok shop content because people would be like seeing the TikTok shop videos and then they would just go read it on KU or buy the ebook.
51:53: Because of that, she got a traditional distribution deal through podium.
51:57: So her books next week as of recording this, but probably like today or tomorrow as of the video going up, like the book is going to be available at like Walmart and Target and Barnes and Noble and stuff.
52:10: Sweet.
52:11: Because of the work we did together on TikTok Shop, and she wasn't making face content.
52:17: She wasn't showing her face for the content.
52:19: She was recording like she was holding the book, she was showing it off.
52:23: She was doing those types of videos where you can see like the pages and then at the very end she would flip it to show the book and then she would like show the tropes and she would narrate some of them and she would just do like the text with the music background on some of them.
52:36: And she did a lot of these and she always, always, always tagged her book on TikTok shop because what this does is it gives TikTok the app an extra incentive to share the video, to have more people see the video, because TikTok makes money from every book sale.
52:53: So even though A massive amount of her income was coming from like her Amazon store still from her like KDP account.
53:04: She was like she was getting that because she was tagging her book on TikTok shop and she didn't have to do face content to do it, but she was doing these same kinds of scripts where she was talking in a dramatic way about this thing that happened.
53:16: So for this one, I remember we talked about not talking about smutty scenes.
53:22: What I mean by that is don't go into detail.
53:24: Don't describe your smutty scene.
53:26: But for this one, and Jack, I don't know how much smut you read or write, but I feel like Emma, at the very least, Kelly, do you write romance as well?
53:34: Yeah, OK, so Kelly and Emma will understand when I say this is not a smutty scene, she says, so she'll be like, so.
53:40: I had my stalker on a live someone in my kitchen and then we did things next to the body, and that was crazy.
53:48: But then I realized kind of what was going on and I yelled at him, my literal stalker who'd just done a live someone in my kitchen, and I like start yelling at him.
53:56: I'm like, Who do you think is going to clean this up?
53:58: Who do you think is the person who has to clean this up in my kitchen?
54:02: OK.
54:03: It's not going to be you.
54:03: You're going to leave and I'm going to have to clean this up.
54:06: Thanks a lot, man.
54:07: So for the people who do read Spice, you're like, it does mention that spice happened, but it's not the spicy scene.
54:14: But it's also that really shocking thing of you are behaving in certain ways next to a corpse.
54:20: I'm sorry for anyone who doesn't read Dark Romance.
54:22: Dark romance gets really messed up.
54:26: Actually, I went on a retreat in Mexico in 2024.
54:30: I went on a retreat in Mexico and one of the other authors was Dark Romance.
54:33: I don't consider myself a dark romance author.
54:35: I really like writing some light fluffy stuff, but she was like, I need an idea for this torture scene, for this bad guy who like attacked his girl, and I was like, oh, what if you do this?
54:48: And she looks at me and it's like, hey, that is fucked up.
54:51: I'm not gonna do that.
54:53: So I had a question about the TikTok shop and like the management of it and like how much time, because I think it's a lot of people are a little intimidated by it.
55:03: I started to set one up and then I'm like, do I really have the time to do the shipping and all the stuff.
55:09: So like, what, what sort of management do you do for your shop and like, where do you source the books and that sort of thing, like where, what is your setup?
55:19: Yeah, so I order my books from Inha Spark and then I order my art.
55:26: I actually do my own character art.
55:28: I'm an artist and I, I don't use AI.
55:30: So when I say I do my own art, I'm not saying I generated in my journey.
55:33: I say I paint it on my iPad.
55:35: So I do my own art.
55:36: I order those from, yeah, so I ordered those from Vista Print, then I, I also order bookmarks here.
55:44: I'll, I'm gonna show off some of my.
55:46: Yeah, so like I order, there it is.
55:49: OK.
55:50: I have to show this one because it has my horse on it.
55:53: fun fact, I have a horse riding lesson today and I based the horse in this cowboy romance off of my actual real life horse, so I got to paint my horse on my art.
56:02: so then I have like double-sided bookmarks, and then I have like my art.
56:06: This is the book where I vowed to never give a girl 5 boyfriends again because this art broke me.
56:12: It's so pretty.
56:13: They're so good at that.
56:15: Wow.
56:15: I work really hard at it, so thank you.
56:18: So I get all of that printed through Vistaprint and then my books I order through Ingram Spark and I do my interior design for my books with Vellum, which if anybody remembers this past spring somebody was like, this is made with vellum AI or this says made with vellum.
56:36: This author clearly used AI and it's like, yeah, so I did.
56:39: Research and I actually did a YouTube video on the subject because I was like, Vellum is a formatting software that authors use that has no AI tools.
56:47: You Googled Vellum because you wondered what this was and found Vellum AI and you did not bother to look at what Vellum AI is because Vellum AI is a software and coding AI.
56:58: It cannot be used to write a book.
57:01: Like it's physically not possible, but yeah, so I'll like format and put my little art and stuff in my books with Vellum.
57:07: And the folks at Vellum have changed that message since then.
57:10: I have it.
57:15: They did that almost immediately, which was wonderful because they did, it was within 24 hours.
57:21: Yeah, the day they had that.
57:23: Yeah.
57:24: So you are not, so those aren't special editions because a lot of people are like, well I got to design a special edition.
57:29: I got to get the trim.
57:33: Yeah, so what I recommend for TikTok shop, what sells best.
57:37: So Emma, I can see one of your books in the background that is just absolutely stunning, has absolutely stunning character promo design.
57:46: Everybody buy Emma's book.
57:48: So I can see like you have it, but what sells better on TikTok shop is going to be discrete editions.
57:54: So what I do for my books where there are a series where each book is about the same characters, I do these special edition covers that are like my full series editions, and these are all I sell on TikTok shop.
58:04: We talked earlier, I have 3 dozen books published.
58:07: I cannot keep 10 copies of 3 dozen different books in stock.
58:11: I cannot do it.
58:13: So I have these special editions.
58:14: All of my older books that are like series where every book is about the same couple.
58:18: So like all of these ones are about Siobhan and Rome, and then I have my discreet, my covers for my billionaire Romance are already discreet.
58:27: I design all my own covers, so it's a lot easier for me because I can just do it all myself and I'm like if I need a new cover, I can get one up in a day.
58:36: OK.
58:37: And then the only ones that I don't have a discrete cover anymore, which these originally came with discrete covers, but Monster romance art covers just sell better because people want to know what the monster looks like because he's weird and scary.
58:50: Art covers sell better on monster romance, but not on like regular paranormal romance or billionaire.
58:59: Romance and insert.
58:59: I do think that's like a self-insert thing.
59:01: No, so what it is is that when people buy physical books, then they want it on their shelf because it's pretty, but they also know that they might read it in public and they don't want people asking about the sexy shirtless man on their books because there's still a lot of shame about reading spicy books.
59:21: there's still a lot of shame around the subject, so.
59:25: So, this is like my, I don't know if you can see this is like my like regular cover.
59:30: It's kind of that one would sell great on TikTok so pretty, yeah, that, that one and then this is the second book.
59:38: So I was like if you did it as a bundle, does do bundles sell like these two go together, so they're a duet.
59:45: Yeah, so what I would do is I would have each book at its normal price that you sell it.
59:50: On Amazon or on your website or whatever, have it at its normal price individually and then take like $5 off per books so that the bundle is $10 cheaper than buying them separately.
59:59: So that's what I do.
1:00:01: Just make sure you price appropriately.
1:00:03: So if you're ordering special editions from 48 Hour books, and each book costs you $40 to print, don't sell them for $40 each because you still have to pay for your shipping envelope.
1:00:13: which I ordered from Amazon.
1:00:14: And then your printer thingies.
1:00:18: I use these little thermal printers.
1:00:19: I love them, and they could come in every color of the rainbow.
1:00:22: So if you want pink like I do, I don't know if you can tell by looking at everything about me, but everything I do has to be pink, literally everything.
1:00:30: Literally, every time I design a cover for a book that's first in the series, I'm like the first cover has to be pink.
1:00:35: There has be so much pink on it that it makes people vomit.
1:00:39: And then book two, actually, wait, here's another one.
1:00:41: Here's what my cowboy romance, and it's like a mauve pink color.
1:00:45: So also fun fact, I took the photo that's on this cover at an actual raining Ho show, and then I changed enough of the details that it's unidentifiable as to who the writer is, but this is a real professional cowboy on the cover of this book.
1:00:59: Well, sweet.
1:01:00: Yeah, just a fun little fact, but yeah, so everything has to be pink.
1:01:04: Bundles were great, they sell really well, and people love them because it feels like they're getting something even more special because they're getting all of the books signed at once.
1:01:12: So all of their books in that series will be signed copies.
1:01:15: If you want to do special editions, I recommend finding a company on a website like Alibaba that does special Editions, because 48 hour books, you're going to spend $20.30 dollars, $40 a copy if you want like a paperback with sprayed edges.
1:01:29: You're going to be spending a lot of money and then hard covers obviously are going to be more.
1:01:33: And then if you want the, like, oil on the dust jacket, then that's going to cost more.
1:01:41: And then the foil on the case wrap, that's going to cost more, right?
1:01:46: And then this one also has the sprayed edges, so that's going to cost more.
1:01:51: So when you order from one of these bigger places,, from China, you're going to get, you're still going to get very high quality books, but it just, it costs a lot less, but you're going to have a higher minimum order quantity, so you can't just order like 1 or 2, you're gonna have to order like 100 at least.
1:02:08: So, special editions are something to wait on until you have like a proven book that sells really well already, that has a proven audience, because people who've already read the books are going to be most of the people who buy it.
1:02:20: No, does the Tick Talk shop audience, are they pre-order friendly because not all audience, TikTok Shop is not a pre-order friendly site whatsoever.
1:02:30: OK, that's good because, so it's TikTok shop specifically you have to ship the book out within 2 days.
1:02:38: So what I do is I pre-sign all of my books and then I pre-wrap them, and I record every time I'm signing books.
1:02:45: I video record me signing the books so that I have that for content, and then I record myself wrapping the books for content.
1:02:52: We want to have the content, so I have like my very tall standing desk that use in my office, so my laptop is currently on it, or I would show you guys.
1:03:01: So I have that and I set, like set up my camera.
1:03:04: I don't have a tall enough camera stand for my normal camera, so I just take this bookshelf right here and turn it sideways, and it's really loud to move every time, but I turn it sideways and then put my camera on it and record myself signing my books.
1:03:17: So then I like, then I record myself wrapping all of the books, because then what I can do in the end, overall, when I've recorded all this stuff, I can have a video recording of me taking a book off the shelf, a book of a recording of me putting it on the table, and then me signing the book, and then wrapping that book and then putting that book in an envelope and then closing the envelope.
1:03:36: And these could be videos that were taken days apart, right?
1:03:39: But it tells a story.
1:03:40: It tells the story of getting the book off the shelf, signing it, making it feel very lux and cuff.
1:03:45: and exciting for readers who want these signed books when I take a book off of the shelf and sign it and video while I'm doing that and video packaging it up.
1:03:55: If somebody orders a bundle, I'm going to record pulling each of the books off the shelf, getting my packaging ready.
1:04:02: I have bundle boxes that are black boxes that are beautiful.
1:04:05: That was a fun sentence to say, black bundle boxes that are beautiful.
1:04:10: So I have those, and I'll set those up and get those all set and video record while I'm putting the books in there.
1:04:15: And then later I can record a narration over the top of.
1:04:18: So someone ordered my Strange Rockstars bundle, and it comes with all three strange Rockstars book and it comes With my Christine and Joseph key chain that has a little cheesy Christine that I drew on one side and Joseph on the other, you can't do the other side because this dime bag is not see-through on both sides.
1:04:35: I mean normal bag that's not for weed.
1:04:37: I got it because it was shiny, OK?
1:04:41: Right.
1:04:41: And then I put a little holographic sticker on the back of the book, so that people, so that you would remember which book it's from.
1:04:47: So then it comes with that, and it comes with the bookmark and it comes with the art blah blah blah blah.
1:04:50: I'm gonna record that stuff as I do it, so that I have that piece of content, and then I'm gonna post that content, and I'm gonna say, I'm just going to say, and I only have limited copies, so you can order now before I run out, and I'm going to say that.
1:05:04: I'm not going to say it's available on TikTok shop because I'm going to post this video on YouTube shorts, Facebook reels, Instagram reels, TikTok shop, and my online store, my Alexis Pierce.com store or my Kate Hallbooks.com.
1:05:18: The store is going to be linked on the Instagram, on the Facebook, on the YouTube, so that if people want to buy a physical copy, they can buy it from there and then they can still hope that their video will get recorded of their book shipping out because somebody might comment and be like, Oh my God, I think that's the bundle that I just bought.
1:05:33: I think that's mine headed my way.
1:05:34: And so people get excited about that, right?
1:05:37: You can also do live videos where you're packaging orders and you can actually link products on TikTok shop when you go live, but you have to be live for more than 90 minutes for a live to actually be all that effective.
1:05:48: Because TikTok hates us.
1:05:50: Speaking of live streaming, this is kind of the perfect opportunity to bring up an upcoming book funnel feature.
1:05:57: I don't know if you've heard about it, Kate, or not.
1:05:59: I haven't.
1:06:00: So we are in November, we're going to be releasing a digital ebook signing, the idea being that you can at in-person events, sign ebooks for people and have them sign up for your mailing list right there in person, or you could even sell those digital copies as a signed ebooks, which is It's gonna be interesting to see what readers or readers react to it, because obviously signing a physical copy makes a lot of sense, but TikTok live and just going live on social media in general was one thing that stood out to me.
1:06:30: Like I can go live, talk to to readers, and Book Funnel is going to give you the ability to have a landing page that they can go to, to then submit their email, and you could be signing ebooks for people on a TikTok live stream and growing your mailing list at the same time.
1:06:45: That's definitely very interesting.
1:06:47: I'd be very curious to look into that when it comes out when I'm in Germany because I'm going to be in Germany when that comes out.
1:06:53: Right, right.
1:06:54: How, so I guess I'm just springing this on you right now, right?
1:06:59: So obviously, you haven't had the time to, to fully digest the brilliance of This feature, but, but for, for something like that, somebody who wants to, to live stream, whether it's using this feature that I discussed or anything like, what do you got to do there for 90 minutes, you said, I know for some people that's like that can be intimidating.
1:07:18: What do you do to make that interesting, make it worth your time?
1:07:22: The majority of viewers on a live stream are going to watch for 7 seconds or less.
1:07:28: 7 seconds, 7 seconds is the average view time on a live per person.
1:07:33: A lot of that is because some people will jump.
1:07:36: In and then jump out after watching for like 3 seconds and then some people will stay for a few minutes.
1:07:41: Most people are not going to stay for very long.
1:07:43: Like they're going to kind of get the idea and then if they're not going to buy a book, they're going to go.
1:07:47: Does anyone remember like shopping channels or like infomercial channels and like late night when every channel turned into an infomercial channel where it would be like, all right, we're going to go over all the features of this product.
1:07:58: Well, no.
1:07:59: All right, we're product, yeah, so it, so basically what I'm gonna do is like this is my sham wow and I'm going to be going over the features of my sham wow and then I'm gonna go over the features of my flex seal or whatever that others, I think it's Flex Seal or something like that that the guy slaps it on the big water barrel that's leaking.
1:08:21: And I'm going to go over the features of it.
1:08:23: Then I'm going to go over the features of the next book.
1:08:25: I'm going to go over the features of the next book, and I'm going to give each book about 1 minute, 1 minute and a half and go over the features and show off the art and tell people about the book.
1:08:33: And then I'm going to loop back around and start again with the first book that I have, and I'm just going to keep doing that over and over and over again.
1:08:38: It's super boring.
1:08:40: It's very labor intensive, but if you do it right and if you do it for, I would say set up your first one for like 30 minutes to.
1:08:48: hour and expect zero sales.
1:08:50: Just expect zero sales just kind of to try it, 30 minutes to an hour, and then you want to start doing them for 2 hours.
1:08:57: You don't have to do, like, I wouldn't do just right at 90 minutes because 90 minutes is when they're going to start being like, OK, you're serious about this, let's start giving you viewers, but like going more than 2 hours and talking is exhausting, and I know this because I talk for a living.
1:09:09: I know I write books for a living, but like a lot of it is just talking about the books, right?
1:09:14: and talking about Everything else that I do with authors in the author industry, so it's Super exhausting to talk for two hours.
1:09:23: So it's not sustainable to do it every day, but it's something you can plan for once a week or once a month, and it's a really good way to increase your subscribers or followers or whatever, and it's a good way to sell some books.
1:09:35: Every time I go live, if I do like a week where I'm like, I'm going to go live every day this week, then, and I'm live for 2 hours each of those days, then I've done this experiment a couple of times.
1:09:46: Every time I do it, My sales doubled the next day from the previous day.
1:09:52: And so by the end of the week I'm selling and it's not quite double so sometimes it's like I sold 4 copies the first day, the second day I sold 6 or 7.
1:10:02: So a very noticeable spike though.
1:10:04: And so by the end of the week I'm selling like 2050 books in a day in one live because TikTok is like, yes, you go live at this time, you've been very consistent.
1:10:14: Here you go.
1:10:14: We want you to use this feature because people spend money to watch lives.
1:10:18: They spend money on those little roses and crap.
1:10:20: And so TikTok wants people to use lives.
1:10:23: They want people to go on the lives and do the gifts or buy the things on TikTok.
1:10:26: And so lives are very heavily rewarded and they're very heavily rewarded on Instagram and Facebook as well.
1:10:32: And you can use the software like OBS, which is open broadcasting software.
1:10:36: You can use softwares like that to go live on multiple places simultaneously.
1:10:41: If an author wants to get started on TikTok or or getting started with all of the things that you've talked about, what would they do today?
1:10:48: Like, what could they do to get started that would help them?
1:10:52: Yeah, so the first thing that you're going to do is get a hook, figure out your hook.
1:10:58: That's the 1st 3 seconds of your video.
1:11:00: And what I like to do is I pick a scene from my book.
1:11:03: We were talking earlier about like emotional scenes, scenes that are like emotional but relatable, especially that appeal to like loneliness or insecurity.
1:11:11: Pick a scene like that from your book.
1:11:12: I don't care what genre you write and whether it's about a weather detective in a small town where way too many murders happen or it is the spiciest Minotaur romance you've.
1:11:21: Ever written in your entire life.
1:11:23: I don't care what your genre is, pick something that's like, that kind of appeals to that, to that sense of loneliness of the person being alone, and then write a hook on it of, and it might be like, so my Minotaur boyfriend just dumped me after 3 years together.
1:11:39: For one of them, I, I actually just pulled scripts for a client, because we do that now.
1:11:44: That's something we offer at Align Digital now.
1:11:46: Fun fact, and we write these scripts.
1:11:48: So, another one that I wrote that was for a Historical fiction, not romance at all.
1:11:53: It has like the guy is married, so there's some romance.
1:11:56: So one of the hooks that I really, really, really loved for this was the rich Scots.
1:12:01: So this rich Scotsman just rescued a little girl from being horribly abused, and he finds out that everybody in town hates her despite everything she's been through, like nobody tried to help her, everyone hates her.
1:12:13: And so you want to come up with a hook like that.
1:12:15: OK, just something from your book that appeals in some way, or if you can't find something that is Emotional and relatable, you could also do something shocking.
1:12:23: So from that same book, I might be like, so this Scotsman just rescued a literal 9-year-old girl, and when they go into town, he finds out that she's planning on getting married to a teenage boy in town because that's going to shock people.
1:12:35: They're going to be like, Whoa, 9 years old, what the hell are you talking about?
1:12:38: So something shocking and You're going to tell the basis of the scene like you're talking to a friend at a diner.
1:12:45: Imagine you're sitting at a diner and your husband is talking and you're like, Husband, I need you to stop talking because the people at the table behind us are saying some wild shit.
1:12:55: So this is, this has to be the spouse shut up type of Story, right?
1:13:01: Or like, hey, be quiet, we need to, we both need to listen into this conversation because it's crazy.
1:13:06: And so like, for the one where the little girl is claiming that she's going to get married.
1:13:11: So after the hook, you know, he finds out that she's 9 years old and planning on getting married.
1:13:15: So what happened was she saw this boy when they were getting lunch and she saw him and went out behind.
1:13:21: Where he worked and was talking to him and he was, she told him her situation that this guy literally like paid her father off so that he could take her and her brother away from their really, really super abusive dad.
1:13:32: So she's talking to this boy and he's like, Oh, this guy is rich, rich.
1:13:35: Let's rob him tonight and then we'll run away together.
1:13:38: And so then he kisses her.
1:13:40: She's 9.
1:13:40: OK, this is weird.
1:13:42: She's 9, but she's like, thinking this is fine and normal because she's been through some shit.
1:13:46: And right as he kisses her, this Scotsman like turns like the corner and sees this happen and like grabs the boy and it's like, what are you doing?
1:13:54: And the girl is like, No, it's fine, we're getting married.
1:13:57: He's going to marry me.
1:13:58: And the guy's like, You're 9, and she's like, No, I'm 912.
1:14:02: And yeah, that makes a difference right there.
1:14:05: Yeah, yeah, I know, I see what you're saying though, shocking, something that's gonna get people's attention.
1:14:10: Yeah.
1:14:11: Yeah.
1:14:11: So then I want you to do, you can either pull multiple hooks, multiple scenes, or you can just do this one and tell the story on camera, pretend you're on FaceTime with your like weirdly sexual aunt who always has like a weirdly sexual story to tell, so she's gonna love any drama that you give her.
1:14:28: Pretend you're on the phone with her, giving the story.
1:14:31: You can walk around outside or something somewhere with good.
1:14:34: lighting, you want to like walk around and tell the story.
1:14:38: Or if you have some really good lighting in a part of your house, and I don't mean like, your room is kind of bright and you have a window that kind of sees outside and you can turn on an overhead light because that's going to make your view kind of fuzzy.
1:14:49: But like, really, really good lighting, OK?
1:14:51: And you're just going to tell that and you're going to do it 7 times, and then you're going to bring that video, you're going to record it just on your phone, in your phone's camera, not in the TikTok app.
1:14:59: And then you're going to go and you're going to bring that into TikTok.
1:15:03: Edit out all of the pauses, and this is the annoying part.
1:15:05: You have to edit out every time you take a breath.
1:15:07: So every time you're like, because you're talking so fast, I know this because I do this, and I hate editing that part out.
1:15:12: You can edit that on the TikTok app or you can edit it in Cap cut, or you can edit in Adobe Premiere Rush, which is a free app on your phone.
1:15:20: It's like an Adobe Premiere owned one, which is always good because Adobe makes like the professional apps that are used for all the movies and stuff.
1:15:27: So use that, edit out all the pauses.
1:15:29: I would rather your first word be interrupted.
1:15:32: Then like have any sort of pause at the beginning.
1:15:34: I'm not even kidding.
1:15:35: And do not introduce yourself or I will fight you in that Denny's parking lot.
1:15:39: Just give me a when and where, swear I'm kidding.
1:15:41: I'm not going to fight any viewers in a Denny's parking lot.
1:15:45: No, no.
1:15:46: And then like throw some automatic captions on the video and put a hook at the top of the video for the 1st 3 seconds as well so that people know why they're watching.
1:15:56: So the hook at the top of the video might not be that first sentence you're saying.
1:16:00: You might say.
1:16:01: Something like, so when I was 9, I thought I was going to get married, or it might be, so turns out I slept with my boss, or I'm definitely getting fired today, or something like that.
1:16:09: Just a text caption that's another visual hook, that's something that people can read and be like, wait, I need to find out this story.
1:16:14: I need to find out what happens.
1:16:16: And then have those automated captions go over and do the ones where either it highlights every word as you go or where it's just one word at a time and don't do anything too bright and colorful, where it like shifts through the colors of the rainbow or something.
1:16:29: Like, you Do something that's like white text with like the pink that highlights each word, but don't do one where it's like white text and then the text turns pink and then blue and then purple and then red and like cycles through the colors.
1:16:42: Like it's, it's too much.
1:16:43: Don't do things that are too much.
1:16:45: Don't add too much or people are going to be like, this is very badly made and it's amateur and it's, I can't stand looking at it for some reason because it just feels cheap and you can do it for inexpensive without it looking cheap.
1:16:57: And then literally like.
1:16:59: your caption it, like your description, which I use, I do my book title, and then I do my hook again.
1:17:05: So I do when the rich Scotsman finds out that the nine year old girl he just adopted is trying to get married, and then I'm going to have the blurb of the book.
1:17:14: I'm going to censor any words like murder or any body parts.
1:17:18: You shouldn't have body parts in your description.
1:17:20: You shouldn't be talking about this guy's new heights of manhood in your thing.
1:17:24: Kelly's listened to the album.
1:17:25: I can tell.
1:17:27: Yeah.
1:17:28: But yeah, so like, don't talk about that stuff on your description and then put like some keywords, so be like,, waking her demon is a demon rock star romance with tons of angst or something, like have some keywords so that people have the keywords, and it's also going to help when you have those keywords of like putting it in the right categories.
1:17:51: So put that, I just copy and paste the same description for each book.
1:17:54: I'm not even going to lie.
1:17:55: I don't do a new one for each thing.
1:17:56: I have a note, a note in my notes app for each book, and then I paste that description in.
1:18:01: You don't have to do a whole new One, it doesn't have to be that hard.
1:18:03: Don't make things harder on yourself.
1:18:05: But record like 5 or 6 of these videos and then get them all edited and put them in your draft so that you have a post every day.
1:18:12: It'll take you 20 minutes.
1:18:13: Once you can convince yourself to record, sometimes I have to have a little bitty baby panic attack right before I start recording, which adds about 10 to 15 minutes to my filming time.
1:18:21: But then I do it, so don't be worried if you have a little tiny baby panic attack before you start recording either.
1:18:27: , and then just, just do it and just record them all at once, like get them all done.
1:18:33: Nobody cares if you're wearing the same outfit.
1:18:35: Nobody cares if your makeup isn't done.
1:18:37: Nobody cares if you're 65 years old.
1:18:39: Nobody cares if you're a man talking about like spicy romance.
1:18:42: Like honestly, if Jack were to be like, OK, so I just found out that I'm pregnant with my one night stands baby, people are going to be like, I need this story.
1:18:54: I need like don't I'm writing the wrong stuff then I'm writing the wrong stuff.
1:19:01: There are men who write romance, and I, I just sometimes they're like, well, when people find out I'm a man and I'm like, use it.
1:19:08: But yeah, so, you know, just use that and record them and get your drafts up so that you can start posting once a day because when you post consistently, that's where you see the money.
1:19:16: Don't expect post number 12345 to go viral, OK.
1:19:20: But when you start posting consistently, you're going to start to see views, and it's going to be slow at first because it's not 2022 anymore.
1:19:27: It's going to be slow at first, but when you post consistently for, you know, 15 days, 20 days, 30 days, you're going to start to see viral content as long as you're making videos the right way, the end.
1:19:40: For 15 to 30 days, OK.
1:19:43: What about like reusing, like recycling that's something that you've already posted?
1:19:48: Does that using the same video.
1:19:52: So if you're going to reuse it, I would re-edit the video, but I would actually prefer that you just re-record it, even if you're recording it in an identical way.
1:19:59: You're like, you know what, this went viral when I posted it walking past my neighbor's house because he has a weird garden gnome that is like naked and people commented on that.
1:20:08: I'm going to re-record the exact same thing.
1:20:10: Just because then TikTok is not going to see it as duplicate content and unoriginal content, but actual duplicate kind of gets a little bit less views or they they sort of suppress it if you actually duplicate it.
1:20:22: OK, makes sense.
1:20:25: Gotcha.
1:20:26: Got you.
1:20:26: I was furiously taking notes and then I realized when you've got the course.
1:20:32: Yeah, yeah.
1:20:35: Maybe this is a sign you should go open the course.
1:20:39: It's all in the workshop, and I'm really sorry for everyone watching, but workshops signups closed well before we ever recorded this podcast.
1:20:46: But if that's how you got me too, your last FOMO email got me.
1:20:51: I was like, I know what she's doing.
1:20:53: I know what she's doing, but it's working, damn it.
1:20:56: Yeah, when it works it works.
1:20:59: All right.
1:20:59: Well, Kate, I wanna thank you for joining us today.
1:21:03: Anything else you want to shout out before we wrap up here?
1:21:06: I think that's it.
1:21:07: I think I went over everything before I lose my voice.
1:21:10: Where, where can I will obviously put links in the description here on YouTube, but where can folks go to find you?
1:21:17: Yeah, absolutely.
1:21:18: So I have like an Instagram and a TikTok and stuff.
1:21:21: I have Kate Hall biz and I have Kate.align, A L I N E, same spelling is the thing on everything.
1:21:27: , and then my website is align digital.com.
1:21:31: I have, I now have the option to work with me.
1:21:34: So if you're like, Kate, I don't know how the hell to write these scripts.
1:21:37: We have come up with a proprietary scriptwriting system that's in-house only.
1:21:41: We have professional scriptwriters that are like that have like master's degree in literature and stuff working for us to make sure that we pull these scripts properly, we don't.
1:21:50: Use AI for our scripts, and for anybody who's worried that we're going to plug your book into AI, we do not do that.
1:21:54: And so if you're wanting to work with us, you can also email.
1:21:57: And then I have, of course, my like original courses and course bundle that used to be like $200 a course, but now you can get all 5 of them for just a flat $299 on my website as well.
1:22:08: And if you use the code a book funnel 20, you can also So get 20% off of the bundle or individual courses, you just can't use it for like working with us stuff.
1:22:19: Gotcha.
1:22:19: Excellent.
1:22:20: Excellent.
1:22:20: Well, thank you again.
1:22:21: It was, this conversation did not disappoint.
1:22:24: But we'll definitely have you back again in the future.
1:22:26: Kate, as, as things continue to, I'm sure the things in this landscape are gonna continue to shift and change, and so we'll need to have you back.
1:22:34: Maybe next year, maybe another.
1:22:36: Well, I'm also gonna shift and change.
1:22:39: No super hardcore details, but I recently signed on with an agent and we're looking at some stuff for Trad publishing that I think will help a lot of people.
1:22:48: We're looking at some nonfiction for Trad publishing, and if it's gonna be big, you're gonna see me on Cooper's not on the air anymore.
1:22:54: You're gonna see me on the Drew Barrymore show.
1:22:58: Would have excited for that.
1:22:58: You are awesome.
1:23:02: All right.
1:23:03: Yeah, I know that we'll, we'll keep our ear to the ground.
1:23:05: Yeah, absolutely, absolutely.
1:23:07: Well, thanks again, Kate, thank you, of course, to my co-hosts, Emma and Kelly.
1:23:11: You guys, I couldn't do this without you guys.
1:23:13: Thank you so much.
1:23:14: And thank you, of course, to our viewers in the audience.
1:23:16: Thank you for watching.
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1:23:23: And if you had one major takeaway, please leave that in the comments.
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1:23:37: It really does mean a lot.
1:23:38: For all of us here at BookFunnel, I want to thank you for tuning in, and we will see you all in the next one.
1:23:44: Thank you for watching.
1:23:46: Check out these other videos from BookFunnel and don't forget to subscribe to the channel.