Posts by Shelly Brown

This Week’s Tip: Strengthen Your Book’s Hook (Because a great message isn’t enough if no one stops to hear it).

If your book isn’t selling the way you hoped, it’s easy to assume you need a new strategy, a different platform, or more time online.

Sometimes that’s true.
But far more often?

Your message is strong… your writing is strong… but your hook isn’t isn’t hitting where it matters.

A hook is the single sentence that makes a reader pause and think:
“Oh… that’s for me.”

Not “that sounds interesting…”
Not “cool idea…”
But “I need this.”

Here’s the reality many authors don’t realize: Readers don’t buy a good story.

This Week’s Tip: Write a “Dear Reader” Letter — One Paragraph from Your Heart

Some of the most impactful posts aren’t the polished ones… they’re the personal ones.

The quiet, honest notes that sound less like “marketing” and more like a conversation across the table.

That’s why this week, we’re keeping it incredibly simple:

Write a short “Dear Reader” letter.
One paragraph.
No link.
Just connection.

A “Dear Reader” note sounds like:

· “Dear Reader, if today feels heavy, I want you to know you’re not forgotten…”

· “Dear Reader, I wrote my book because I know what it’s like to feel alone in this…”

· “Dear Reader, I’m proud of the courage you’re showing just by taking the next right step…”

This Week’s Tip: Let Your Message Matter More Than Your Metrics

If you caught this week’s fUNfiltered episode (click here to watch on YouTube), you already know we got real. We talked about Amazon ranks, dashboards, expectations, disappointments — and that sinking feeling when the numbers don’t match the effort you poured into your book.

But here’s the shift we want you to carry into the new year:

Your value as a writer doesn’t rise and fall with your dashboard.
Your message didn’t become “less important” because your rank dropped.
And your book didn’t lose its power because a spreadsheet didn’t reflect it.

Metrics are loud, but they’re not honest.

They don’t measure the mom who cried through your chapter.
They don’t measure the woman who felt understood for the first time in months.
They don’t measure the person who whispered, “This is exactly what I needed today.”

They can’t.

Your message lives in a world metrics can’t touch.

This Week’s Tip: 10 Thanksgiving Posts That Serve (Not Sell)—and Build Real Connection

(Note: For our friends outside the U.S.—these ideas still work beautifully any time you want to slow down, be present, and bring encouragement to people’s inboxes or timelines.)
The holidays can get loud online.
Everyone’s promoting something, launching something, pushing something.

But what if your presence felt different over the next couple of weeks?

What if you showed up not to sell your book … but to bless, encourage, and bring a little warmth into people’s timelines?

Here are 10 simple, heartfelt ideas—lifted straight from our recent “Marketing Talk for Authors fUNfiltered” conversation on YouTube—to help you show up with gratitude and authenticity, not pressure.

Choose one. Choose two. Or try all ten throughout the next couple of weeks.

These aren’t marketing tactics … yet somehow, they build the kind of trust that leads to lasting impact.