This Week’s Tip: Don’t Put All Your Hope in Launch Week

By Shelly Brown | February 23, 2026
launch

This Week’s Tip: Don’t Put All Your Hope in Launch Week
Successful authors think long-game, not launch-only.

If you’re honest, it’s easy to emotionally load everything onto launch week.

“If this doesn’t go well, I guess the book didn’t work.”

“If sales dip after week three, something must be wrong.”

“If I’m not seeing traction right away, maybe I missed my moment.”

But here’s the truth:

Launch is a spark.
It’s not the fire.

Read More

When the Hospital Becomes Your Battlefield: How Faith, Preparation, and Advocacy Can Save a Life with Author, Val Barschaw

By Shelly Brown | February 19, 2026 |
Val Barschaw

https://podcasts.helloaudio.fm/download/eDE4Uz9CGy/1eeab959-fbe2-442f-bdf0-e02c5699d125.mp3 What if one simple act—asking a question, keeping a list, or wiping down a surface—could prevent a life-threatening mistake in a hospital room? Hospital stays often come with fear, uncertainty, and a sense of helplessness. Most people assume that once they enter a hospital, their care is entirely in the hands of medical professionals.…

Read More

Successful Authors Don’t Compete

By Shelly Brown | February 16, 2026
authors

This Week’s Tip: Successful Authors Don’t Compete – They Collaborate
This week is the bridge.

Platform is relationship.
Message is service.
Collaboration is how both multiply.

Successful authors don’t isolate. They intentionally link arms. They understand something many authors miss:

You don’t need a bigger audience. You need shared audiences.

Read More

When Tragedy Strikes: Where Is God When Everything Changes? with Author, Melissa Harris

By Shelly Brown | February 12, 2026
Melissa Harris

What would it look like to trust God—not after the crisis passes, but right in the middle of it, when the outcome is completely unknown?
In today’s episode of At This Table, host Shelly Brown sits down with Melissa Harris, Redemption Press author of Rewrite This Tragedy, to talk about the day her family’s ordinary hike turned into every parent’s worst nightmare. When a falling tree branch critically injured her four-year-old daughter, Melissa found herself crying out to God with desperate faith—unsure if her child would live, yet held by an unexplainable peace.
This conversation isn’t just about a miracle. It’s about prayer when answers aren’t guaranteed. Faith when fear feels overwhelming. Parenting in the middle of trauma. And the God who remains present—on the trail, in the hospital room, and in the long aftermath of healing.
Whether you’re walking through uncertainty right now or carrying pain from a story that didn’t turn out the way you hoped, this episode offers encouragement, perspective, and a reminder that God never wastes our suffering.

Read More

Start With the Message, Not the Sale

By Shelly Brown | February 9, 2026
message

This Week’s Tip: Start With the Message, Not the Sale
Another significant shift successful authors make is this:
They stop treating their book like a product…and start treating it like a message. When the book becomes the focus, marketing starts to sound like:
“Here’s my book”

“Here’s the link”

“It’s on sale”

And even when your heart is pure, it can feel awkward, heavy, or forced.

But when the message leads? Marketing feels less like selling, and more like serving.

What to Do This Week (Simple & Doable)
We know we’ve talked about this before – in fact, we’ve come back to it in several different weekly tips.

That’s not by accident.

This is one of those foundations that’s easy to understand… and just as easy to drift away from. And when marketing starts to feel heavy or ineffective, this is often one of the pieces that’s skipped over.

Read More

When You Still Believe—but Feel Distant from God with Author, Marisa Claudine

By Shelly Brown | February 5, 2026
Marisa Claudine

https://podcasts.helloaudio.fm/download/eDE4Uz9CGy/fdd9b9ae-0eea-41f5-be58-671f11d41957.mp3 What if reconnecting with God started with a conversation instead of a checklist?   In today’s episode ofAt This Table, host Shelly Brown sits down with Redemption Press author Marisa Claudine for a tender, hope-filled conversation about intimacy with God in the middle of real life. At This Table is a space where we…

Read More