410: Building a bookstore for the little guys (with Fleur Hull)
About this episode
Fleur Hull discusses her journey from losing her job to building the Substack Bookstore and the challenges authors face in publishing.
Season 4, episode 10 is here! Fleur Hull has spent years working with authors on the hardest part of writing a book (which is everything that happens after you finish it!). She built the Substack Bookstore because she kept watching good books disappear without readers, and she decided to do something about it. This was a really good one. What we covered: - How Fleur went from losing her job during COVID to launching a podcast, writing a bestselling book, and eventually building one of the most distinctive communities on Substack. - Why she believes authors should think about their audience before they write a single word, and why most of them do the complete opposite. - The cover design mistake she sees constantly that immediately signals to readers something they probably didn’t intend to signal. - What actually happens to a book’s visibility on Amazon in the weeks after launch, and why so many authors are caught completely off guard by it. - The surprisingly simple thing most authors neglect on their Amazon page that is costing them readers every single day. - Why she tells authors to delay their launch by at least a month from when they think they’re ready, preferably three…
More episodes of How to Write for a Living
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- 412: Story discovery as the pathway to success (with Michelle Ray)
- 411: What happens when you finally stop settling (with Bobby Umar)
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