From Book to Clients: Learn How to Market Your Book Authentically with Judy M. Baker

**Maccabee** (00:00:00) - Hello, are you happy? Beautiful book loving people. It is your boy Maccabee Griffin again. And we are thrilled to have the ever inspirational Judy M. Baker with us today. Judy has transformed her life and channeled her experience battling ovarian cancer into a profound appreciation for happiness and wellness. And as the book marketing mentor, she's on a mission to spread positivity and success to storytellers, young and old, one author at a time. And with her unique blend of deep listening, heartfelt guidance, and unwavering support, Judy is no stranger to the challenges faced by authors and business owners. And she's made it her professional purpose to help them rise above and flourish. I have come to talk to Judy on a couple occasions, and it has been amazing. She has so much insight into the marketing world when it comes to books, as well as just creative insights even into logos. Go figure. So, without further ado, please join me in welcoming the creative catalyst, the curiosity conductor, and the passion powerhouse herself. Judy, the silver lining scribe baker to be on the pen. Welcome, Judy.

**Judy Baker** (00:01:30) - Well, I feel honored. It's been just, you lifted my spirits today. I was having, I was having kind of a gray day and you've already made me laugh. And it was fun looking at your new logo.

**Maccabee** (00:01:43) - I know. It's gonna be so fun once I get done with it and being able to really put it out there for everybody to see. I got a few ideas, but you know what, we are evolving here. You help people evolve their ideas and their mindsets to not just look at their stories as just plain old stories, but as pieces of, of a masterpiece, as an overall masterpiece that they're not really fully seen at the time. So before we start getting into the whole book marketing idea and everything, could you please introduce yourself to my lovely book readers here and give us something if you're willing, that we can't find out anything about you?

** Judy Baker ** (00:02:31) - Oh, okay. Well, I have always been a book lover. I can, I can still remember being a little kid and I was sitting in the kitchen figuring out what words were, and so my mom was cooking and I go, is this a word? I had a little tablet and I said, is this a word? Is this a word? And as soon as I could put them together in sentences, I was off to, to the library with my dad probably three times a week. And I always got, you know, massive. I got all the books that I could take out, always went to the limit. And later on, it turns out I worked in the public library in San Diego. My sisters all worked in the University library, uh, San Diego State when we were, we were all in college together. And I was the youngest, but I was the only one that worked in the public library.

** Judy Baker ** (00:03:26) - And one of my sisters married a librarian. Go figure. So I've been addicted to books my whole life and I know how to typeset using a ver type machine. So most people don't even know what that is. But I remember when they went from the lead type that you had to set by hand to it being computerized. And it was all because a friend of mine worked for Rivera Typer. And then I marched in to my, my counselor at school and I said, um, I don't wanna take Home ec next, next semester, cuz I've been cooking for a really long time. I'd like to take the, uh, the class where I can print my book. And he looked at me and he said, uh, that's only for boys. I said, uh, no, I'm taking the class. And okay, most people don't know this few, very few people do. My dad came down to the school and said, she's taken the class. And this is before there were equal rights for women before Title seven. So I broke that mold. I was the o and I was the only girl in this class, had a blast. I set type, had learned how to use an offset press, and then later on I became a graphic designer. So all of this stuff worked, and I've been writing my whole life, poetry, nonfiction, uh, magical realism. I just love books.

**Maccabee** (00:04:58) - Well, it, it, it does make sense, you know, being the silver scribe yourself, you know, and silver lining scribe, excuse me. Oh, thank you for that

**Judy Baker* (00:05:07) - One. <laugh>,

**Maccabee** (00:05:08) - You're very welcome. The Creative Catalyst. Mm-hmm. <affirmative>, the curiosity conductor and the passion powerhouse. Oof.

**Judy Baker** (00:05:18) - I sound so wonderful. I have to meet you <laugh>.

**Maccabee** (00:05:22) - You know, I, I, I say the same thing sometimes to myself. I have to be that innovating sometimes. And, you know, it takes a lot of great strategies to get where you're at right now, especially for, you know, new authors. And, you know, as someone who really is starting to get into that, um, into that world a little bit more in the publishing world, creating these great networking, uh, programs, as well as just developing these relationships with people that have mm-hmm. <affirmative> the experience that I really need. And I really want, um, you know, for authors, what what strategies can they use to identify their ideal reader demographic when they're coming to you?

** Judy Baker ** (00:06:10) - Well, some of the authors have not yet written their book. Some have written it. And either way you can look at where are you showing up now, where do you find, where do you find your clients and readers, since I, I tend to specialize more with non-fiction than with fiction. And if you look at, are you letting people know that you're a writer, you know, in your different social profiles and if you've published, are you putting that information, like in LinkedIn, you can list your books and you can do it on other ones, but LinkedIn has an actual section for publication. Um, getting to know your audience is not as hard as you might think. You can do it and have some fun with it. You can post questions, do a survey. People love stuff like that. And if you're a problem solver, ask some of the, the questions that you get from your existing clients and prospects, put it in their language.

** Judy Baker ** (00:07:19) - And the best thing in the whole world to find out if your book is resonating with your audience, if you have an email list, you can be talking to your audience and growing it as you are writing your book, publishing your book, marketing your book. And it isn't about find my book. You're continuing to educate and give solutions. People are looking for, you know, well, we were talking earlier, I was having some weirdness with my mic, so I said, okay, not gonna deal with that. Right now. You were having some weirdness with your computer. Now if those problems persisted, what would we do? We would call a specialist. Mm-hmm. <affirmative>. And that's where I come in because I help authors frame the journey that they are on so that while they're in it, they are making those connections. And as you said, making connections is golden.

**Maccabee** (00:08:24) - Yes, absolutely. And I, I think it's really, um, one of those things that a lot of authors really don't think about sometimes when they're first starting up. Because, you know, when I ask about ideal, you know, the the ideal reader, the demographic that people should go to, there's a lot of times where people are like, well, I don't even know what I'm writing right now. It's like, okay, well fine. That's great. Get your story first and then realize as it's organically growing, just start putting notes here and there to, to figure out like, oh, these are little things like, um, the magic. Well, there's tons of people in into magic anymore, and it doesn't mean matter the ages either. Mm-hmm. <affirmative>, which is great. Mm-hmm. <affirmative>, you know. Yep. Thank you Harry Potter. Um,

** Judy Baker ** (00:09:14) - Oh Lord, don't you do some young adult novels? I mean, seriously. They are, to me, they're like candy.

**Maccabee** (00:09:22) - It is. And, and that's what I think is great, is because as we've looked over the, the past year young adult as like skyrocketed Absolutely. Between that and romance mm-hmm. <affirmative>, I mean, it, it's there. It, it's like, and a lot of 'em are taking the romantic young adult to a different level. Mm-hmm. <affirmative>. I mean, look at, um, who was it? Uh, Katie Cross, I think her, her

**Judy Baker** (00:09:48) - Name is Yeah. Oh my gosh. Just kava.

**Maccabee** (00:09:50) - She, she went from like barely knowing, even knowing her name to all of a sudden, she's like one of the top romantic authors of this year.

** Judy Baker ** (00:10:00) - Exactly.