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 in...
Feb 19, 2019•24 min•Ep. 64
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...
Feb 12, 2019•27 min•Ep. 63
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 ot...
Feb 05, 2019•11 min•Ep. 62
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 se...
Jan 29, 2019•16 min•Ep. 61
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 t...
Jan 22, 2019•31 min•Ep. 60
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 au...
Jan 15, 2019•20 min•Ep. 59
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 we...
Jan 08, 2019•34 min•Ep. 58
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 ...
Nov 27, 2018•28 min•Ep. 57
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...
Nov 20, 2018•23 min•Ep. 56
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. ...
Nov 13, 2018•11 min•Ep. 55
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 at...
Nov 06, 2018•10 min•Ep. 54
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...
Oct 30, 2018•30 min•Ep. 53
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...
Oct 23, 2018•17 min•Ep. 52
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 like...
Oct 16, 2018•16 min•Ep. 51
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 intervi...
Oct 09, 2018•15 min•Ep. 50
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 ...
Oct 02, 2018•11 min•Ep. 49
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...
Sep 25, 2018•25 min•Ep. 48
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 w...
Sep 18, 2018•19 min•Ep. 47
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 ...
Sep 11, 2018•20 min•Ep. 46
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, vi...
Sep 04, 2018•22 min•Ep. 45
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,...
Aug 28, 2018•22 min•Ep. 44
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 ...
Aug 21, 2018•20 min•Ep. 43
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 p...
Aug 14, 2018•17 min•Ep. 42
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 ...
Aug 07, 2018•30 min•Ep. 41
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...
Jul 31, 2018•33 min•Ep. 40
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...
Jul 24, 2018•17 min•Ep. 39
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 assuagin...
Jul 17, 2018•21 min•Ep. 38
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://k...
Jul 10, 2018•24 min•Ep. 37
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 yo...
Jul 03, 2018•22 min•Ep. 36
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...
Jun 26, 2018•35 min•Ep. 35
