We recently connected with Stephanie Moon and have shared our conversation below.

Hi Stephanie , thanks for joining us today. What’s the best or worst investment you’ve made?

As cheesy as it sounds, the best investments I’ve made are in myself. Over the years, this has looked like different things. It began with working with a business mentor which was an investment in money. The next investment was in finding the right accountability partners which was a lesson in time. I found someone that I’ve been meeting weekly with for over two years. At first we were getting to know each other and our businesses but now its like talking to an old friend. Investments can come in so many different ways. But I’ve found that investing in myself makes the most difference because I’m the one generating revenue in my business, I’m the one making decisions and I’m the one serving my clients.

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

I’ve been lucky enough to have worked in traditional publishing for over 12 years. During this time, I got to work with hundreds of authors and I noticed a pattern. The ones who were really successful and got multiple deals and sold lots of books were not only talented writers but also good at marketing. These authors had built up an audience who were excited about what they did, they had an ecosystem and a clear path for readers to take and most importantly – they had building this marketing system for years. For some authors who hadn’t yet spend the time building their marketing systems, they were confused about what they should be doing to get their book into more readers hands. I saw so many authors be disappointed because they didn’t immediately get 100 reviews on Amazon or they didn’t get to go on a book tour or their books weren’t flying off the shelves.

And to this I always said to them – “Your book is good! But the only way people are going to buy your book is if you tell them you wrote one.” Then I realized that so many authors think of themselves as writers but to be a succexsfully published author, you need to be a marketer too. So I saw this huge hole in the market to educate authors and give teach them why they need to market their books, how they can market their books and the accountability to actually get it done.

This is what I focus on as book marketing strategist.

Can you tell us about what’s worked well for you in terms of growing your clientele?

Connecting with people and building relationships with people. My first couple clients all came as referrals from people I’ve worked with in the past. Then my next couple customers came from more people I met in my traditional publishing days.

I’ve made it a point to continually connect with people. What this practically looks like is connecting with old colleagues, attending networking events, making friends and connections from other groups and organizations I’ve been a part of and even asking people I’ve only interacted with a little if they would like to do a “coffee chat”. By doing this, I’ve built my network of people who refer me clients and I’ve also crated a long list of professionals who I can recommend to others!

I take coffee chats with friends of friends, people who have moved to my city and other professionals who work in publishing and with authors. There of course have been times where the other person tried to sell me their services, or where our vibes just didn’t match up. But most of the time, I’ve made a great new connection. One of the best parts about connecting with others is being able to make introductions of two people I’ve met.

Connecting with people is honestly one of the most fun parts of my jobs. I can’t believe it’s actually part of my job.

What do you think helped you build your reputation within your market?

Every opportunity I have I share value and information about publishing, books and marketing with my audience. I create educational content constantly, I give mini-workshops, I speak to writers groups and on podcasts, I present at events and conferences. I am constantly out there sharing what I know about the publishing process and how marketing is as much of the process as writing is.

I know that publishing can be so opaque and hard to navigate. I’m changing that by being as open and forth coming with information as I can. In one of the last presentations I gave, I shared about the tools publishers use to market books and literally no one in the room had ever heard of these tools ever before. Now that these authors knew what the publisher was going to do, they knew how as an author they could help make the tools more efficient and effective. There is so much behind the scenes info that I want to share!!

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.stephmoonco.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/stephmoonco
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/stephmoonco/
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@stephmoonco9682
• Other: https://www.tiktok.com/@stephmoonco