Episode 350 - Beyond the Launch: Reviving Your Backlist with Jeff Elkins
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In this episode of The Indy Author Podcast, Matty Dalrymple talks with returning guest Jeff Elkins—author of thirteen novels and founder of The Dialogue Doctor—about giving an old, never-marketed backlist a second life, and why a book’s launch no longer has to determine its fate.
Jeff shares how he started marketing books he’d published years earlier and watched them find new readers. He and Matty question assumptions baked into a decade of indie-publishing advice: that the Amazon algorithm rewards only what’s new, that a weak launch means a dead book, and that “write fast, publish, repeat” is the only path to success. Instead, they explore finding readers one at a time across different platforms and in person, and marketing yourself as an author rather than individual books.
The conversation also digs into redefining success (do you need to be “McDonald’s,” or is a beloved local following enough?), getting past the imposter syndrome that keeps authors from championing their own work, and building a reader community around who you are. Jeff closes with a look at his book The Dialogue Doctor: On Emotion, and the idea that, at its core, a book is an emotional journey for the reader.
Jeff Elkins is the author of 13 novels and has coached over 400 authors 1-on-1 as The Dialogue Doctor.
Episode Links
Episode 336 - The Economics of Con Life with Todd Fahnestock
Episode 298 - The Artisan Author with Johnny B. Truant
Episode 131 - The Color Wheel of Characterization with Jeff Elkins
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