About this episode

Suzanne Smith discusses her journey from blogging to securing a book deal, including insights on content marketing and self-publishing.

How can content marketing in a tight niche build the audience that launches your book? And how do you decide whether to hand your self-published bestseller to a traditional publisher. Suzanne Smith shares what she learned in four years of going from blog to book deal. In the intro, how to stand out as a writer in the age of AI [ Nathan Barry Show ; Interview with Nathan Barry ]; thoughts on asset maintenance; Goodreads giveaway on Bones of the Deep (Aug 5-20, 2026) This episode is sponsored by  Publisher Rocket , which will help you get your book in front of more Amazon readers so you can spend less time marketing and more time writing. I use Publisher Rocket for researching book titles, categories, and keywords — for new books and for updating my backlist. Check it out at  www.PublisherRocket.com This show is also supported by my Patrons. Join my Community at  Patreon.com/thecreativepenn   Suzanne Smith is the founder of The Independent Landlord , and the bestselling author of The Good Landlord Handbook . You can listen above or on  your favorite podcast app  or read the notes and links below. Here are the highlights and the full transcript is…

People in this episode

Host: Joanna Penn

Guest: Suzanne Smith

Topics covered

• content marketing
• self-publishing
• traditional publishing
• audience building
• non-fiction writing

Keywords

• content marketing
• self-publishing
• book deal
• audience building
• non-fiction

Sponsors

Publisher Rocket

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: Penguin Random House

Books & works: The Good Landlord Handbook, Bones of the Deep

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