You’ve written your book and the hard work is done, right? Nope! As an author, you’re not just looking to write a book, but you’re hoping to sell that book, too. Our guest today talks about what she did for her launch and how it set her on the path to great book sales, as well as opportunities. Amy Lyle is an author, comedienne, actor and screenwriter whose book launch kicked off with a party that set her book up for consistent sales and lots of publicity opportunities that followed. For more information, visit the show notes at https://kindlepreneur.com/e64 

Back in Episode 61, we talked about what it’s like to work with publishers and the differences between legitimate, illegitimate, and vanity presses. But in today’s episode, we talk with an author who has gone the traditional publishing route and self-published. She has also set up her own publishing company. Anna David became well-known as a freelance writer for magazines and newspapers. When her first novel was picked up, her publisher, unfortunately, ended up in the midst of a scandal, and the book was published under a fake imprint. Although she received plenty of press, the book did not sell well. This was back in the early 2000s, before everyone, it seems, was on social media. But Anna also realized that unless you are a major celebrity, publishing houses will only do so much for your book. She found even if the publisher is paying you upfront for the book, you still have to know how to market yourself. She also says it’s important to focus on owning your audience and making sure it’s not an audience you’ll lose should you decide to switch to another publisher or self-publish in the future. Anna has now become a publisher for others with her friend Kristen McGuiness. She helps new authors establish a writing presence, and she also helps authors with their writing and marketing. One of the most important lessons to take from this episode is just because you’re able to land a contract with a publishing company, it doesn’t necessarily mean success. Even with traditional publishers, it’s still important you know how to market your book yourself. For more information about Anna, or any of the resources mentioned, visit the show notes at https://kindlepreneur.com/e63 

Book writing software. There are a lot of options. In today’s episode, we’ll talk about three of the most common ones: Microsoft Word, Google Docs, and Scrivener. Microsoft Word is familiar to many and may already be on your computer. Google Docs is free and cloud-based, meaning you can access it from anywhere. Scrivener has the most bells and whistles, though, and is designed with authors in mind. Each one has pros and cons, and depending on your style of writing, you may prefer one over the others. For more information, visit the show notes at https://kindlepreneur.com/e62 

As an author and consultant who has worked with a number of book publishers, it’s important for us authors to understand how publishing companies work, what they look for in books, and what authors need to consider before signing anything. The biggest thing to consider is these companies are looking for books that will sell. There are four main things to take into account when it comes to leveraging your book: The subject matter is something the company really cares about. Your own sales as a self-published author. Your social media following and/or email list. How much you stick to the company’s core structure. There are so many independent book publishers now, you may find it’s easy to find a publisher that is perfect for your genre or book style. You may even find publishing companies that are focused even more on particular niches within that genre. If you’ve already self-published, having good sales numbers is also appealing to publishing companies. Even if you’re not published yet, you may have already been building an email list or your social media following. Publishing companies are able to see those numbers as absolute sales, and they’ll see you as a good risk to take. I’ve even seen one author leverage different publishing companies against one another to get a six-figure deal. If you find a publishing company that seems to fit your genre, you may want to look at other books they have published to see their core style. If you’re able to write in that style, you’ll look more appealing to that company. Before You Sign You may have found what you think to be the perfect publishing company for your book. But before you sign anything, you should be aware of the different ways deals can be structured. When talking with Jeff Goins, another author, he said when you sign a deal with a publishing company, how much they give you upfront is usually an indication of how much effort they’re going to put into your book marketing. If they put money up front, they have more skin in the game to recoup those costs. Find out what kind of support you’ll receive from your publishing company. Will there be a marketing team? What kind of marketing are you expected to do? After a Rejection Understand that you may get rejected, as well. J.K. Rowling is known for getting rejected by many publishers until her agent called in a favor and begged a publisher to read the first “Harry Potter” book. But if you get rejected from one of the major publishing companies, you may be passed along to their vanity press, which is like a subsidiary of the bigger company. You may have to pay to get published through these, plus you’ll have to do a lot of your own marketing. And on top of that, they still get a cut. Smaller publishers may be able to give you more personalized attention. Be sure to do your research on the ones you find, though. It’s easy enough to create a limited liability corporation, throw up a website, and call yourself a publisher, but find out if they actually have the skill-set to get your book in front of the right market. Regardless of your decision to sign with a big or small publisher, it’s still important you learn marketing. Gaining a following and an email list is essential, as well. These are tools that will help you sell your own books, as well as pitch your books to publishers. Resources Referred to in this Episode: Jeff Goins Book Marketing Show Setting Up a Book Publishing Company

Facebook can seem like an intimidating place to put yourself out there as an author if you’re not used to it. You may wonder how to navigate between using it for personal reasons versus using it as a marketing arm of your books. But it can be a powerful tool and, used correctly, can help your readers connect with you more. Audrey Hughey helps her students in the Author Transformation Alliance use tools like Facebook to help market their books without coming across as too pushy or “salesy.” She talks about how Facebook pages can be set up separately from our personal profiles and what kind of content works to our advantage when it comes to selling without seeming “salesy.”   For more information, visit the show notes at https://kindlepreneur.com/e60 

When you first start out as a writer, you may be looking to supplement your income. One great way of doing this is to become a ghostwriter. A ghostwriter is an author who is paid to write a book for someone else. It may not seem like it carries the same weight as authoring your own book and seeing your name on the cover, but there are a lot of reasons not to discount ghostwriting. For one thing, it could bring in enough income for you to be able to quit your 9-to-5 job to focus on becoming an author, like our guest on today’s podcast, Matthew Thrush. Matthew is a six-figure ghostwriter. He went into it with the idea that he liked to write, but quickly realized that he was able to quit his day job to become a ghostwriter for others. For more information, visit the show notes at https://kindlepreneur.com/e59 

Writing a book is hard. Sometimes when we find our books aren’t selling well, we may have to make the choice between reviving it or letting it go. In this Reviving a Dead Book case study, we look at an author who decided not to revive his first book, but instead tried reviving his second. Then, he was able to look at both to see the difference a revive can make. Stuart Thaman wrote his first book in college during NaNoWriMo and it was picked up by a publishing company, but didn’t initially do well. He honed his craft, began writing more, and learning more about marketing. Now he’s considered one of the top book marketers and helps publishing companies with their AMS ads. For more information, visit the show notes at http://kindlepreneur.com/e58 

Writing a children’s book is not something to go into lightly. Sure, it may sound like less work because they’re typically fewer words, but there are things to think about you may not be prepared for. But if you have ever thought about it, it’s a great market to get into. About 40 million children’s books are sold online every year. Eevi Jones has written more than a dozen children’s books of her own and uses her knowledge to teach others the skills needed to write, publish and market their own children’s books. The tips she shares in this episode will help you think about the different factors to consider when writing a children’s book, as well as get you started in the right direction. For more information, visit the show notes at http://kindlepreneur.com/e57 

Michael Knight who went from doing OK with sales of his book to seeing some major changes after taking my free AMS course and using KDP Rocket. One of the things I talk about in the KDP Rocket course is that you may find keywords to use for your book you may not have immediately thought of before. Michael is still learning what keywords work best with his book for AMS ads, which he talks about in the episode and gets ideas for even more keywords that may attract his ideal reader to his book. For more information, visit the show notes at https://kindlepreneur.com/e56

If you’re using CreateSpace to create and market your book, you won’t want to miss this ingenious way you can price your book higher, sell it for a lower price, and still get the royalties that come from the higher price. While you may not necessarily use this tactic, I do encourage authors to test different prices for their books anyway to see what works best for them. Former guest Derek Doepker stumbled upon this hack and talks with me today about how it works and how we can use it ethically. This is within CreateSpace’s terms of service, but when you use this hack, you want to make sure you’re adjusting the price so it make sense for the size of your book and still gives Amazon and Barnes & Noble a profit. For more information, visit the show notes at https://kindlepreneur.com/e55

One of the most important things you’ll be tasked with as an author is to come up with a title for your book. Many authors think it’ll just come to them. However, after sitting in meetings with publishing companies, I know that doesn’t just happen. Publishers have a process because they know book titles can make all the difference in the sales of that book. In this solo episode, I talk about using data from the market and how to do research to make sure you come up with a title that grabs the attention of potential readers, how to use similar books as inspiration, and how to test your title. For more information, visit the show notes at https://kindlepreneur.com/e54

Derek Murphy continues our discussion on book cover design. We’ve both tried to make our book covers stand out, but many designers will tell you a cliche book cover may do really well because it’s what the audience wants Derek has spent plenty of time reviewing what kinds of covers work better to convey what the book is about. This translates into more clicks on an ad with a cover that is intriguing to them. For more information, visit the show notes at https://kindlepreneur.com/e53

It’s important to understand which links Amazon prefers you use for your book and how trying to game the system with a different URL won’t work. Jesse Lakes, co-founder of Geniuslink, is today’s guest. His service helps authors create links for users to click, which then opens the Amazon store for their country. He talks about the URL Amazon prefers to market your book and why it’s important not to try tweak the link. For more information, visit the show notes at http://kindlepreneur.com/e52

For new authors without much of a following, the idea of a book marketing service may seem appealing, but you should be wary of them. I’ll be going over some of the things you should think about when it comes to book marketing services, as well as listing some red flags to be aware of if you do decide to use one. Not all book marketing services are bad, in fact there are some out there that may be able to help with your marketing just fine. Although any good book marketing service will most likely put authors through a submission process to make sure they have the capability to be able to market your book; in fact, many act similarly to a publishing company. However, nobody is going to better than you at marketing and selling your book because nobody has as much skin in the game.  For more information, visit the show notes at https://kindlepreneur.com/e51

My response to a recent guest post on Kindlepreneur from John Pinedo about creating a hardcover version of your book and having it sold on Amazon. John used Lulu to create a hardcover version of his book and wrote about it in his guest post, but there are other options for doing this. There are two guests for this week’s episode, John and Eevi Jones. Eevi, who has also written a guest post on Kindlepreneur, used IngramSpark to create hardcover versions of her children’s books. In the two interviews, we compare the pros and cons of using each platform so you can decide, as an author, which one would work better for you. For more information, visit the show notes at http://kindlepreneur.com/e50

Fiverr may not be the first place you think of when it comes to where to go to find someone to design a book cover for you, but if you’re on a limited budget it’s not a bad option to look at. For those who may not know, Fiverr is an online marketplace where people will post jobs they can do that cost as little as $5. There is also a lot listed that is more than $5, but the name comes from the idea that you can find people willing to do the work for little money. Finding someone to design a book cover on Fiverr can be tricky, but in this episode, I’ll talk about three ways to approach finding an artist in order to get you the book cover you not only want, but is also good quality. For more information, visit the show notes at https://kindlepreneur.com/e49

Author conferences might seem downright scary to those who have never been. But I can tell you from personal experience that the ones I’ve gone to have had a prolific change in not only the way I write, but also the way I work with others. In this session of Marketers & Coffee, I’m bringing on my friend Craig Martelle who runs the 20Booksto5k Facebook Group. He’s created a community where authors can share ideas, learn from one another, and grow. But today, we’re talking about author conferences. Craig is also putting on the 20BookstoVegas Conference in November so he’s a great person to have a chat with about how authors can get the most from these conferences. For more information, visit the show notes at http://kindlepreneur.com/e48

When Ethan Jones first published his book, he sold five copies the first month. As the years went on, he improved his marketing skills and improved as a writer. He decided after six years to do a complete rewrite, cutting almost 15,000 words, editing chapters, and added a better ending. He also added a cliffhanger so readers would want to move on to the next book in the series. I did pretty much all that I had learned in order to make a book more captivating for the reader. One thing Ethan did was instead of putting up a new version of the old book and keeping the reviews, he republished the book. Even though the reviews weren't awful, they were at about 3.8 stars, and many of the reviews reflected the old version. When he republished the book, he wanted to start fresh without any of the old reviews. There are two ways of uploading a new book to Amazon: If you decide to make it a new book, you can do what Ethan decided to do and republish it without any of the old reviews. The other option is to publish the new book, but contact Amazon to transfer the reviews over. We’ve talked in past episodes about authors republishing their books with new covers, but Ethan had already changed the cover a few months prior to the new release. He had also changed the description for the book. Ethan used a three-pronged approach for pre-launch: He worked with his list. He used paid promotions. He contacted author friends for help with promotion.   By the time Ethan was ready to launch his book again, he had about 10,000 readers in his email list, which was incredibly important for him. He asked them to either put a review of the new book if they read the older one and he offered to send them the new version so they could read it and consider leaving a review. He also lowered the price to $0.99, which is a lowest a book can launch at. In the years of being an author, he had made friends with other authors and reached out to them to add his book to their email newsletter, which helped market the book. He also used AMS ads and Facebook ads, and book promotion sites to help him with his launch. After all his efforts, the final comparison is his first edition of the book went from 10,000 sales over the course of six years at $2.99 to 1,000 copies during the first two weeks of the new version’s release at $0.99. Bio of the Author in the Case Study: Ethan Jones is an Amazon bestselling author of the Justin Hall spy thriller series; The Carrie Chronicles, which features Justin Hall’s partner; the Javin Pierce spy thriller series, and the Jennifer Morgan suspense thriller series. Ethan is a lawyer and lives in Canada with his wife and son.   Find links to resources in the show notes at http://kindlepreneur.com/e47

Social media seems like an obvious choice when it comes to marketing your book. Now, in this episode, we’re not talking about Facebook ads, but we’re talking more about using social media, specifically Facebook, as a way to connect with your readers and attract new readers. When Allison Garcia started marketing her book using Facebook, she set up a Page, as many authors do, and posted updates every few weeks. Once all her friends and family bought her book, she decided to get more serious about selling her book and began posting more often and consistently. She joined The Author Transformation Alliance Group on Facebook and took part in reader attraction challenges, which boosted the number of times she was posting, as well as posting content other than just “Buy my book.” This brought people to her page, who then helped share her book with others in their circles. The content she began posting was contant she thought people were going to be interested in and connect with, but still keeping it relevant to the book, itself. Because she writes Latino Christian fiction about undocumented immigrants, she posts relevant news stories, as opposed to posts about Stephen King’s new book, since it has nothing to do with her genre.   A lot of her Page’s success has come from sharing important posts that people are more willing to share, as well as word of mouth about her, as an author, in general. She has also taken advantage of spending a few dollars here and there to boost posts from her page. She’s also been more encouraged to go to in-person events, which has grown her page and email list. These also led to making connections to future events she could attend. Now Allison has a launch team, many of whom have come from her newsletter, and she has found her book ranking highly in Kindle sales of her book. Between interacting with her readers and learning from her past mistakes, she now finds marketing fun, rather than painful. "I've grown to enjoy marketing, which is something I did not enjoy at all" - Allison Garcia Bio of the Author in the Case Study: Allison K. Garcia is an author and Licensed Professional Counselor. Her short stories and books have been the recipient of numerous award nominations and honorable mentions. She has been featured in local newspapers for her connections in the Latino community in Harrisonburg, Virginia. A member of cultural competency committees for work and a participant in several Dream Act rallies and other events in her region, she also sings on the worship team and enjoys get-togethers with the hermanos in her church. With the help of her husband, Julio, and their son, Miguel, she has been able to nurture her love for the Latino people. For more information, visit the show notes at http://kindlepreneur.com/e46

Even the most nit-picky of writers needs someone to look over their work from time to time. Having a proofreader means there is an extra set of eyes and, in many cases, a fresh set of eyes that might catch things that, as the writer, you might not. Caitlin Pyle is a proofreader for books and teaches others to become proofreaders. Not only has proofreading become her full-time job, but it has also helped her and her proofreading students make connections to other authors. For more information, visit the show notes at https://kindlepreneur.com/e45

The font you use on your book cover plays a big part in the success of your book and how well your cover resonates with your target market. One of the major elements to consider when designing your book cover is your font choice. It can be tempting to put a lot of emphasis on using a fancy font with lots of elements to make the title, subtitle and/or author name pop on a cover, but there’s a fine line between awesome and cheesy. Derek Murphy, who helps writers with publishing and book marketing, is our guest on today’s episode to talk about what you should be thinking about when picking fonts and designing the title, subtitle and author name on your book cover. For more information, visit the show notes at https://kindlepreneur.com/e44

When it comes to picking the right cover, title and description for your book, your opinion as the author may be biased because you already know exactly what your book is about and what’s inside. For those coming across your book for the first time, though, it’s important to take into consideration what they are attracted to. Finding this out requires testing, which can either be done on Facebook, or as Kim Kohatsu and I will talk more about, a site called PickFu. This site allows users to test out their covers, descriptions or titles for users to judge which one they like best, and the best part is that users leave feedback about what they liked and disliked. For more information, visit the show notes at https://kindlepreneur.com/e43

We’re going to be diving deep and looking at why keywords might not be working for your book and how to fix it. We’ve covered a bit about keywords in the past and how important they are for authors. But what if our keywords aren’t working for us? In this solo episode, I talk about the reasons why your keywords might not be working, and ways you can assess what words are working and which ones might not. This will also help in not only attracting the right readers to your book, but also in your packaging of the book, itself. For more information, visit the show notes at https://kindlepreneur.com/e42

Audible has made it easy for people to download and listen to audiobooks, especially because they can listen on the go. With Audible’s incentive of offering two free books when readers sign up, it’s also become increasingly popular. Having and audiobook version of your book can be a great way to gain more readers, as well as add a little bit more credibility to your book. Derek Doepker has been turning his nonfiction books into audiobooks for three years and has seen their growth as a result. I brought him on today for a Marketers & Coffee session to talk a little bit about some options authors have for adding audiobook versions of their books. For more information, visit the show notes at https://kindlepreneur.com/e41

Once a month, I like to sit down with authors or someone who’s an authority on a certain subject and chat about their area of expertise in what we call Marketers & Coffee. On this episode, we talk about the Amazon review process. Now, as you’ve learned from previous episodes, you can’t pay for Amazon reviews, and we dive a little deeper into how we think Amazon looks for fake reviews or reviews that were gotten in ways that go against Amazon’s policies. Craig Tuch, the owner of Hidden Gems Books, joins me for today’s episode. While you can’t pay for reviews, Hidden Gems works within the rules of Amazon to help authors get reviews using specific email lists to send Advance Review Copies to those interested in reading them For more information, visit the show notes at https://kindlepreneur.com/e40

While there are many marketing tactics to help increase awareness and sales of your books, don’t discount local media to help you promote it. A press release that’s sent to news agencies is a good practice, especially if your book is relevant to readers and viewers. Dan Janal, the owner of a major press release company, is on today’s show to help us get the inside scoop and understanding of press releases, including how they work and if you should consider one for your book. For more information, visit the show notes at https://kindlepreneur.com/e39

Playster is a growing subscription-based service that allows you to download unlimited music, movies, books, audiobooks and games for a monthly fee. For customers, it’s a great deal and it means you don’t have to worry about credits or paying extra like with Audible for audiobooks. While it’s good for the consumer, it’s also great for authors, as well. Our guest this week is Kevin Tumlinson from Draft2Digital who talks about the benefits of making books available on Playster, as well as assuaging any fears authors might have about not getting paid for their work. For more information, visit the show notes at https://kindlepreneur.com/e38

Emeka Ossai and I discuss what writing and our books have done for us that are necessarily about making money. They’ve opened doors for us and created opportunities. Emeka is known for his YouTube channel, which has a lot of videos about Kindle self publishing, as well as personal growth and creating a passive income. When he published his first book published in 2016, he found he was able to create some extra income for him and his family. For more information, visit the show notes at https://kindlepreneur.com/e37

We all know reviews can be instrumental in giving our books some clout when it comes to people on Amazon browsing and looking to see what others thought. One question that causes some confusion among authors is, Can I give copies of my book away for free in exchange for a review? And the answer is yes, but also no. Amazon has specific rules regarding how authors can get fair reviews from readers. This episode, I talk to Craig Tuch, the owner of Hidden Gems Books, which is a review site. While you can’t pay for reviews, Hidden Gems works within the rules of Amazon to help authors get reviews using specific email lists to send Advance Review Copies (ARCs) to those interested in reading them. For more information, visit the show notes at http://kindlepreneur.com/e36

One subject that has come up a lot in this podcast is the advice of not putting all your eggs in one basket. Amazon may be at the top when it comes to the book market, but newer platforms for people to sell their books on are emerging and making your book available on those platforms can increase your sales. Amazon has started cracking down on authors and publishing companies who are practicing deceiving tactics when it comes to increasing their sales, and Amazon has begun cracking down on these. But that has created some casualties of authors who weren’t breaking any rules, but were still dinged by Amazon. It’s important these authors are making their books available elsewhere, not only to avoid being left out to dry if Amazon decides not to sell their books anymore, but also to increase overall sales. While many authors see about 90 percent of their sales come from Amazon, our guest today, Tracy Cooper-Posey, has been able to market her books on other platforms and estimates that only 35-40 percent of her revenue comes from Amazon. She uses Draft2Digital, which helps distribute her books and she also distributes them herself on as many different sellers as she can find, including on her own website. She recommends learning the different platforms and how to create a vibrant presentation of the books yourself, instead of trusting an aggregator. This gives her a little more control over how her books are shown and even smaller sellers count. She also uses these smaller platforms in her advertising with the intention that the market will see her book sales increase and possibly promote her ranking within their ecosystem. But, like we’ve talking about in previous episodes, if you are planning on running any sort of ads for your books, make sure you give them a little time to pick up traction.   She also asks her readers to leave reviews on the platform they bought the book from. This may sound like a no-brainer, but it bodes well for our books if reviews are spread across different sites, and may increase the book’s visibility. Another thing she recommends is selling you book on your own website, which you can do through a shopping cart plug-in like Selz, Woo Commerce, or Gumroad so you’re not bogged down by technical questions and you can focus more on writing. Doing this also means you can set your own price and offer deals and coupons, and you can increase the revenue you recieve when someone purchases your book directly from you. However, if you’re selling your first book, you don’t need to worry too much about selling on your own site for the time being. A last piece of advice Cooper-Posey gives is to stay on top of industry news so you’ll be able to find out about new platforms that are just starting up. POSSIBLE PULLQUOTE: Things change and you can’t just set it and forget it, you keep monitoring, keep an eye on the ground, and listen to the gossip. Find out what’s going on in the industry.   Bio of the Author in the Case Study: Tracy Cooper-Posey is an award-winning author who’s published over 90 books since 1999, been nominated for five CAPAs including Favorite Author and won the Emma Darcy Award. You can check out her works and even ask her questions at her site at http://tracycooperposey.com/.   Resources Referred to in this Episode: Tracy Cooper-Posey’s Author Page TracyCooperPosey.com The Productive Indie Fiction Writer     iTunes Books Kobo Playster Kindle Unlimited Draft2Digital Smashwords Microsoft Books IngramSpark Ready Player One by Ernest Cline Off to Be the Wizard by Scott Meyer Google Play Books Book Funnel Selz Woo Commerce Gumroad Shopify Book Marketing Show Kindle Select vs KU vs Other Markets: What's an Author To Do? Book Marketing Show Marketers & Coffee: Getting the Most out of AMS Ads with Brian Meeks

Many fiction writers may use a short story as a content upgrade for those signing up for their mailing lists, but using a method I call the Kobayashi Maru tactic makes that reader magnet even more appealing. W.H. Lock and Jim Heskett both used reader magnets and found that they not only turned their readers into email list subscribers, but also turned them into true fans. W.H. Lock used the Kobayashi Maru Tactic for his email list, while Jim Heskett actually gave his readers exclusive access to another book in the series. For more information, visit the show notes at http://kindlepreneur.com/e34

While your book is providing your readers with value, going above and beyond for them by offering what’s known as a “content upgrade” can turn them from readers to loyal fans. A content upgrade can be something like a companion PDF, eBook, video, or even course readers can get by signing up for your email list. By offering this content upgrade, your readers can get even more out of your book by signing up for your email list, but you can also use that email list to send notifications of future books or announcements. However, the latter shouldn’t be the draw to get readers to sign up — no one wants to get emails that read like commercials. That’s where the content upgrade comes in. Steve Scott comes on this episode to talk about different options for content upgrades and how they can be used to provide your readers with something complementary to the book, such as a video course or checklist. Steve has used this technique to offer his readers a companion video series to his book to explore the topics of his books further. He also mentions Pat Flynn, who took the content upgrade even further by offering a free video course with his book “Will it Fly?” and then used that course to promote a paid course. But you don’t just have to go with the video content upgrade, you can do a printable checklist, PDF, or additional eBook. This may sound like it would only be good for non-fiction books, but in the next episode, we’ll talk about how you can add readers to email subscribers for fiction books. Bio of the Author in the Case Study: Steve Scott — also known by his pen name, S.J. Scott — is an author of more than 60 books for internet entrepreneurs, nonfiction eBook authors, bloggers, and affiliate marketers. He also likes to travel, run marathons, and read. Resources Referred to in this Episode: Steve Scott’s Amazon Author Page S.J. Scott’s Amazon Author Page Habit Stacking: 97 Small Life Changes That Take Five Minutes or Less by S.J. Scott Will it Fly by Pat Flynn Traffic and Conversions Summit Book Marketing Show Start Your Author Email List ASAP Book Marketing Show Listing Previous Books for More Sales with Steve Scott   For more information, visit the show notes at http://kindlepreneur.com/e33

Having your book nominated for or winning an award is a wonderful opportunity for any author. While you might have high hopes of increased book sales following the accolade, those sales may not come quite so easily. In today’s episode, author Amy Murphy talks about her experience having her books nominated for the 2016 Dragon Award and how it affected her book sales, but more importantly, the other opportunities that came from earning the award. Applying for many awards is similar to applying for a scholarship in high school. It’s something the author has to be proactive about. Awards aren’t just handed out. It will benefit you to find awards in your genre and submit applications for them. But what should you do once you are nominated? Well, you can’t sit back and wait for your book to fly off the shelves. As we talked about in the previous episode Amy was a guest on, having an email list is important for situations such as this, when you want to get out the word of your success and any calls to action you may need from the people on your email list. Another thing Amy did was she changed her book covers to reflect her nomination (but not until finding out if she was indeed a nominee or a winner). Having that award listed on the cover, as well as in the author’s bio and book descriptions, may catch a reader’s eye. Most of the awards for books won’t necessarily help authors make long-term growth, but they may be able to help with networking and growing your reach as an author with other authors. When Amy was nominated for her award, she was able to gain access to email and Facebook groups to help her network with other authors and their email lists. One more benefit of being nominated for an award is the credibility that comes with it, which can help an author who may be looking for get into traditional publishing or trying to hook a literary agent. Bio of the Author in the Case Study: Amy J. Murphy is a sci-fi author and a finalist for the 2016 Dragon Award for Best Military Science Fiction or Fantasy Novel. She is also a Semi-Finalist in the Kindle Book Awards in the Science Fiction category. She is a member of the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America. While not attending sci-fi conventions, she lives in Vermont with her husband and two dogs. Resources Referred to in this Episode: Amy J. Murphy’s Amazon Author Page Contact Amy at AmyJMurphy.com Allies and Enemies Series by Amy J. Murphy The Book Marketing Show Start Your Author Email List ASAP  For more information, visit the show notes at http://kindlepreneur.com/e32

Facebook ads and Amazon Marketing Services (AMS) ads are great ways to promote your book and increase your sales. But before you throw your time, energy and money at these, take a look at some of the pros and cons of each to help you decide which one may be right for you. Amazon Marketing Services Pros The ads are already put in front of people who are on Amazon looking to buy a new book. You can set up ads for specific keywords to help sell to just the right audience. Cons The analytics are slow to report. There isn’t a way to convert potential buyers into email list subscribers or get them to your website. There isn’t as much inventory when it comes to books as other products on Amazon. Facebook Ads Pros Easier to track conversions and clicks to your website. More comprehensive buyer data. You can create ads targeted to very specific groups of people, depending on their behavior or likes. You can direct people to your website to sign up for your email list and purchase the book directly from you. You can make other content, such as videos, and target those who engage with that content the most. Cons If the ad brings someone to a website to sign up for an email sequence, the conversion to buying your book may not be as quick. The ads can be intrusive to their intention of socializing on Facebook and they may not necessarily be in the mood to purchase a book. It may be harder to get someone off one platform and onto another. Facebook ads can be difficult and even expensive to those who don’t know the platform well.   As you can see, neither platform is perfect and deciding on what you want your long-term goal to be as an author may be a deciding factor in which advertising method you use. One more thing to note is even though you might have an easier time targeting Facebook ads to entice people to sign up for your email list — a function AMS ads doesn’t allow — you might also have luck using a draw within your book to encourage readers to sign up, like Pat Flynn’s companion course he made for those who bought his book. With any advertising method, take your time to test out different ads to see which ones convert people to buying the book the best, and don’t just throw a bunch of money into tons of different ads because then you’ll never learn what works best. “Get your buyer data and then take those people on a long term journey with you and convert them into people who actually like your stuff and do it without looking like you're advertising.” Bio of the Author in the Case Study: Jonny Andrews is a publishing expert and founder of Author Platform Rocket. He has helped thousands of author entrepreneurs grow their audience through book development and advertising. He is also an entrepreneur, international speaker and business strategies consultant and is the host of the Author Platform Podcast. Resources Referred to in this Episode: Jonny Andrews’ Amazon Author Page Author Platform Rocket The Author Platform Podcast Kindlepreneur Free AMS Book Ads Course Will It Fly? by Pat Flynn Book Marketing Show Marketers & Coffee: Getting the Most out of AMS Ads with Brian Meeks Book Marketing Show Listing Previous Books for More Sales with Steve Scott

A common question from authors is about pricing their books. There are five major things to take into consideration when setting your price: Competition analysis Analysis of KU and Kindle Direct prices Target Demographic Future Book Sales and Launch Prices Patrick King is the guest for this episode, and he’s had first-hand experiences testing prices and seeing what sticks. For more information, visit the show notes at www.kindlepreneur.com/e30

When an author writes a book, it’s easy to assume that their main focus for making money would be selling the book, but in the case studies and examples we talk about in this episode, there are more ways authors can benefit from writing a book financially than simply selling copies. One case study we looked at is a lawyer who wrote a book that he used as a kind of calling card for her services, which increased the number of clients he has, as well as made him known as an expert in his niche and garnered speaking opportunities. Another example of this is Pat Flynn, who created “Will It Fly?” and offered a free companion course that helps readers go through the book. He used that course to collect a large number of emails and the conversion rate of people who bought the book and then the course was one out of every three. He then made a paid course and sold it to only his list, making more than $120,000 in the first weekend. For more ideas, including using affiliate links as a way of garnering income from your book, go to https://kindlepreneur.com/e29

There are a number of reasons to choose to use a pen name for your writing, including anonymity, separating an author’s personal and professional worlds, choosing something easier to pronounce, protection, or as a marketing technique. Some even do it for fun, like Stephen King writing a book under the name Richard Bachman. When an author plans to pick a pen name, consider creating the author name keeping in mind the age and the readers perceptions and their ability to remember it. For more information, visit the show notes at http://kindlepreneur.com/e28 

Mastering AMS ads isn’t something you can just throw some money at and hope they’ll work. It takes time and some knowledge of how they work. In this special Marketers & Coffee episode, Brian Meeks will walk us through three major points to understand when it comes to AMS ads: Don’t trust the AMS ads reporting system, trust the keywords KDP Rocket gives you, and more keywords is better (even misspellings). For more information, visit the show notes at https://kindlepreneur.com/e27

While the adage “Don’t judge a book by it’s cover” may be true, it’s no secret that many people shopping for books don’t take that advice. A book cover is more important than you might think. You could be the greatest author and your book could be phenomenal, but if your cover doesn’t grab a reader’s attention and give them insight into what your book is about, they won’t necessarily buy it. We’ve had Sasscer Hill on a previous show to talk about how she revived older books to increase sales and she talked about changing her cover design. In this episode, we dive a bit deeper into what she did to change her covers. For more information, visit the show notes at http://kindlepreneur.com/e26

While the cover and the title of a book are the first things shoppers see when they look at your book, hooking them with a description is what turns those shoppers into buyers. An important thing to note for writing descriptions is not to write a book report, but to entice the shoppers to want more. A good description should include a hook, an introduction to the protagonist(s), and a summary that leaves them wanting more. In today’s episode, I talk to Bryan Cohen, author of the book, “How to Write a Sizzling Synopsis,” about some tips for doing so. For more information, visit the show notes at http://kindlepreneur.com/e25

The title of a book is important, and when deciding to change the title of a book, there are a few tips to keep in mind. This will be a solo show where I give you tactics to consider if you plan on changing a book title and we go over Amazon’s rules and requirements for book titles and subtitles. Titles deserve a lot of love and if you are thinking about giving a book you’ve previously released a “facelift,” changing the title to better represent the book and its content can be a great strategy to help. For more information, visit the show notes at http://kindleprenur.com/e24

No matter how far we’ve come, we’ve all had our shaky beginnings, and in this episode, Joanna Penn and I talk about the mistakes we made when starting out and the lessons we’ve learned. Joanna Penn is an author, blogger, the host of The Creative Penn Podcast, as well as lots of videos aimed at helping authors succeed in writing, publishing, and marketing their books. For more information, visit the show notes at https://kindlepreneur.com/e23

Marketing yourself as an author is an important part of marketing your books, and your author bio picture conveys to readers who you are and gives them a chance to connect with you. You don’t have to drop a boatload of money on a photographer immediately, but this episode will teach you how to make the best with what you have. Having an author bio picture is important because it is a reflection of yourself and it shows your professionalism. Even if you think you can’t be photographed, our guest in this episode, AJ Coots, considers herself to be a storytelling photographer. As they say, a picture is worth a thousand words, and this photographer tries to convey all those words with her clients. For more information, visit the show notes at http://kindlepreneur.com/e22

We all know marketing our book is important on social media, but are you using an email list to help your book sales? Many authors, including myself, say one of their biggest regrets is not starting an email list sooner. Our case study in this episode is Amy Murphy, an award-winning sci-fi novelist, who started off with basically no email list, but successfully grew her list and will share some tips she used to not only increase her book sales, but also get feedback and reviews. Her tips will help authors find success with their book sales, and who may not have time to cultivate and grow a list by themselves, as well. For more information, visit the show notes at http://kindlepreneur.com/e21

In our first case study about reviving a dead book, Kevin McLaughlin took his books that were previously selling poorly and, with a few tweaks, he was able to re-release them and garner more sales than before. This episode is the second case study that examines a few things authors can do to make their books stand out to achieve better marketing success. Sasscer Hill published her first book in 2010 with a small publisher and was nominated for both the Agatha and Macavity Awards, and while it was very well received, she was only getting six percent profit from her publisher using Print-on-Demand. But when she got the rights back and made some changes, she saw more money in the first month than the money she made in six months with her previous publisher. For more information, visit the show notes at http://kindlepreneur.com/e20

One of the best ways for learning how to sell books is not just to read blogs or listen to podcasting, but to go to conferences and meet other authors. It can be amazing what kind of ideas come out, and what you can learn from one another. Once a month, I’ll be doing episodes called Marketing and Coffee where I sit down with some of the best authorities out there and chat about book marketing. This week, I’m talking with Mark Dawson, who is the host of The Self-Publishing Formula podcast and has some amazing self-publishing courses available on his website. He’s also a successful fiction and nonfiction writer. For more information, visit the show notes at http://kindlepreneur.com/e19

We’ve talked about Categories in the past few episodes and how they help us to sell more books, how we can find better Categories, and how we can ask Amazon to change our Categories for us. But did you know your book can show up for 10 categories? The reason showing up for as many as 10 categories will help your book sales is because this increases your chances of achieving Best Seller status with your book. And the way you can be listed for more than the assumed three categories is to ask Amazon. For more information, visit the show notes at http://kindlepreneur.com/e18

We are going bit further into picking the right Amazon Book Categories we discussed in the previous episode. We will look at what niche categories are, how they are offered, and how authors can get listed in the categories we want. Our case study for the week is Dali Burgado, a Certified Personal Trainer and Bestselling author who used my free Kindle Sales Rank Calculator to help pick niche categories to list her book under to increase her sales. For more information, visit the show notes at http://kindlepreneur.com/e17

We’ve already discussed how choosing the right categories for your ebooks can help sell within different niches, but in this episode we’ll dig deeper into how picking the right categories can help sales. You’ll learn what Kindle Categories are, as well as how Category rankings are done within Amazon. You will also learn how to distinguish between a good category to list your book under and one that might not help as much as you might think. For more information, visit the show notes at https://kindlepreneur.com/e16

Wouldn’t it be great to know what parts of our book’s Amazon page shoppers look at the most? Author Michael Alvear hired a company to conduct a study using computers with laser cameras that track pupils to see exactly what Amazon shoppers focus on while they were in search of a book. The heat map provided some interesting information that can help authors optimize their book’s Amazon page. For more information, visit the show notes at http://kindlepreneur.com/e15

For authors of multiple books, it’s important to be able to point your readers to other books you’ve written. Today’s episode will focus on best practices for doing so and give tips for effectively listing your previous books to increase their sales. Author Steve Scott — also known by his pen name S.J. Scott — joins the program to discuss how he has found success by promoting other titles of eBooks and to talk about how and why he does it. For more information, visit the show notes at http://kindlepreneur.com/e14

Once you’re an experienced author, you might realize your earlier book marketing efforts fell flat. In today’s episode, we’re going to take a look at how to take that earlier book from “Dead Book”-status and revive it using a few techniques mentioned by today’s guest, who did just that with one of his books. Since there’s no specific formula for doing this, each episode will be called Reviving a Dead Book with a different Case Study Number at the end. The first case study is Kevin McLaughlin, who took his book, revived it, and got some great results and success. For more information, visit the show notes at http://kindlepreneur.com/e13

When it’s a good idea for an author to start thinking about starting a publishing company? One reason would be to start publishing other people’s works. Another would be if you are sued, the rights to your books could be included in your financial assets and could end up in someone else's possession. Today’s case study is my own lawyer, Clint Coons of Anderson Advisory. Clint helped me set up Ebookpreneur, LLC, the company under which I have KindlePreneur, KDP Rocket, and this podcast. He talks about the steps authors can take to start a publishing company, including authors from outside the United States. For more information, visit the show notes at http://kindlepreneur.com/e12

You’ve written your book and picked out what you think are the perfect elements to help it sell: an engaging title, a nice cover, and a description using properly researched keywords. But why isn’t it selling? The idea behind the Symbiotic Book Package is that each aspect of your work has been tailored for a specific market, and it reaffirms to that market that this is the perfect book out there for them. For more, visit http://kindlepreneur.com/e11

Learn the difference between the print on demand services, KDP Print and CreateSpace. Both are owned by Amazon, however, there are differences between the two that all authors should know about. Through this episode I hope you’ll be able to know which one you should use, and if you have used the other previously, is it worth switching your books over. For more information including resources mentioned in this episode, go to http://kindlepreneur.com/e10

Learn how collaborating with another author not only helps you to make more books faster, but also cut costs and combines both of your marketing capabilities so as to create a better chance of book sales success. But there are some things  you should be weary about, and using the tips we go over in this episode, you should have a better chance of success, if not also be able to create a large list of great books under your name, like our case study will show you. For more, visit http://kindlepreneur.com/e9

Learn about reviews and how they affect sales. I’ll show you a tactic you can use to get book reviews even if you don’t have an email list, following or fans. Even if you do have those things, this tactic will still help you get even more reviews and build our your email list with the right kind of readers who like to leave positive and happy reviews. For more, visit https://kindlepreneur.com/episode-8-get-book-reivews

Learn about book promotion sites, how they actually work, and how authors can use them in order to get their books to a large amount of readers. They can be a powerful tool for book launches, as well as a steady drip of sales over time. However, not all promotion sites are created equal and some are a waste of time. Plus there are things authors should consider so that they get the most out of this tactic and reap the best benefits going forward. Don't miss any of the sessions: https://kindlepreneur.com/podcast  

How authors are banning together, putting their books in a box set, and using their collective marketing power to create powerhouse selling machines that propel them to super sales heights like USA Today Bestseller and even NYT bestselling status. Want to join in on the fun and combine forces with other like minded authors?  We’ll see the steps it takes, the preparations necessary and how to find the right group . Plus, hear directly from someone who’s done it multiple times and has been afforded the ability to now call himself a USA Today Bestselling author.

Learn how authors can sell the rights to their books, but to specific markets in the world. This way, you don’t have to relinquish your full rights to your book, but can actually have a publisher in a foreign market take your books, perfect it for that market and help you both make money in a market you wouldn’t have made much money in any ways. Sounds like a win-win situation, right? Well, getting a deal and making sure it is beneficial for you is the tricky part. Luckily, in this episode, we’re going to dive deep into the process and our case study for this episode will show you some of his failures and successes as he’s used this tactic to help build his books into a six figure business.

We’re going to explore the benefits of the programs KU, Kindle Select and the ability to sell your books on other markets. If you setup your book for KU or Kindle Select, you cannot put your book on other markets such as iTunes, Kobo, or Barnes & Noble. This leaves us with one very important question: should an author enroll in KU? Tune in to find out and listen to the stories of two author who have different opinions but have seen success in their choice.  What you’ll discover is that while they are both different, they both share one important aspect that allowed them to be successful. Stay subscribed so you never miss a lesson! http://kindlepreneur.com/itunes 

All you need to know about Amazon categories; including how categories can help you sell more books, how to find the right categories and even a secret method to discovering how many books you’d need to sell in one day in order to become a bestseller. Imagine, you no longer have to guess - I’ll show you how to get real data and know what your target sales mark is. Then I’ll bring on Chris Fox as a case study who will show you how he used categories and found hot niches for his books. Through this method he was able to write books that people on Amazon wanted and corner his market. Stay subscribed so you never miss a lesson! http://kindlepreneur.com/itunes

first talk about how Amazon shoppers use Amazon to find their next book and how we as authors can get our books in front of the right shopper and get discovered through the use of Kindle Keywords.  I’ll show you what makes a good keyword and how to find out how many people actually type that word into Amazon. Then I’ll bring on TS Scott, a fiction writer who had some initial success when he first started but it wasn’t until he realized the importance of keywords and getting discovered that he found real success with his books.  Just going to show us that keywords are important for both fiction and nonfiction. Stay subscribed so you never miss a lesson! http://kindlepreneur.com/itunes 

Today I explain how modern book marketing is done and how Amazon changed the name of the game with the invention of Kindle Direct Publishing.   This episode is VERY important because it will help to lay the framework on which the rest of our lessons will reside.  It will give you a larger overview of what book marketing really entails and where we, as authors, should focus our attention. For more information, visit http://kindlepreneur.com Stay subscribed so you never miss a lesson!  http://kindlepreneur.com/itunes

Are you ready to increase your book sales?  Want to hit the bestseller list consistently? Well, welcome to the Book Marketing Show.  In this weekly podcast, Dave Chesson will teach you some of the best book sales tactics that work consistently in today’s market. Then to show the tactics in action, Dave brings in top-notch guests to show you how they used the information you just learned in the episode in order to improve their sales - and how you too can do the same.  Creator of Kindlepreneur.com, one of the largest, most-visited websites on book marketing, Dave Chesson has also been a marketing consultant for top NYT Bestselling authors in both the Fiction and Non-fiction arenas.  He is sought after by big name publishing companies to help increase sales, and he’s been featured on Forbes, Entrepreneur, and a multitude of book-related websites.  So, tune in and learn for free from the best about the art of book marketing.  Let Dave and his guests show you how they’re increasing their book sales and how you can too!  For more information, visit http://kindelpreneur.com