Table of Contents

Introduction

SECTION ONE: Get Your Book On Multiple Platforms

Increase Your Earnings Right Now By Getting Your Book Onto Multiple Platforms

ACX : Produce An Audio Version Of Your Book

Sell Your Book In The iBookstore, Kobo, Nook, Sony, And More

CreateSpace: Get Your Book Into Paperback

Little-Known Publishing Alternatives

Udemy: Turn Your Book Into A Course

SECTION TWO: How To Promote Your Book Without It Taking Over Your Life Or Bankrupting You

Marketing Is Not A Dirty Word

Track Your Marketing

Maximize Social Media Without Wasting All Of Your Writing Time

World Literary Café

BookGoodies

BookBub

More Promotional Opportunities

YouTube

Sending Requests For Guest Posts & Reviews

SECTION THREE: What To Do Before You Say "I've Tried Everything"!

Name Recognition

Advertising

Write More

Four Reasons Your Book May Not Be Selling

SECTION FOUR: Save Time & Improve Your Writing

Outsourcing – One Of Today's Best Time-Savers

Organization For The Busy Author

Overcoming Perfectionism

FAQ

Resources

About The Authors
**Praise for _Make Your Book Work Harder_**

**_  
_**

"This book gives you exactly what you need to make your book work harder! Nancy and Michelle provide tools, tips and strategies to leverage your book on multiple platforms that will produce results. This book is for the person that is ready to see amazing profits from their efforts. Definitely a must-read for every author."

\- Montina "Sparkwisdom" Portis, international video marketing coach; author of 'YouTube Video Marketing Secrets Revealed: The Beginners Guide to Online Video Marketing'

"I'm really enjoying the book so far! It's so well written - very clear and easy to understand. I'm sure this will be extremely helpful to indie authors, and it's very unique in the things it covers. I love the title too."

- Julie Farrell, contemporary romance author

"This is exactly what I needed – but didn't know what to look for! Interesting and easy to understand and implement."

\- Andrew Harrison, author of 'Archery Without Pain'

© 2013 Nancy Hendrickson & Michelle Campbell-Scott

All rights reserved. No portion of this book may be used without sole permission of the copyright holder except in use of a review.

Published by Green Pony Press, Inc.

The publisher and authors have attempted to be as accurate as possible in the creation of this book. The content, including but not limited to: statistics, screenshots, availability of products, etc., are as accurate as possible, as of publication date. Due to the rapidly changing nature of the Internet, some statistics, terms of service, etc., may have changed. While all attempts have been made to verify the information provided in this publication, neither the authors nor the publisher assume any responsibility for errors, omissions, or contrary interpretations of the subject matter herein. The views expressed are those of the authors alone and should not be taken as expert instruction or commands. The reader is responsible for his or her own actions.

Some of the links (excluding any and all links to Amazon.com) in this eBook may be 'affiliate links'. This means if you click on the link and purchase the item, we may receive an affiliate commission. Please understand that we only recommend products or services we use personally and believe will add value to our readers. We are disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission's 16 CFR, Part 255: 'Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials'.

Cover design by: Robin Ludwig Design, Inc.
**MAKE YOUR BOOK WORK HARDER**

**How To Make Use Of Multiple Platforms To Make More Money**

Nancy Hendrickson

&

Michelle Campbell-Scott

Green Pony Press, Inc

By the same authors:

Sell More Books

55 Free Promotions That Work

PR for Authors

How to use public relations, press releases, and social media to sell more books

# Introduction

**_"Content is King. Promotion is Queen."_**

Bob Mayer

IN THE BAD OLD DAYS, authors had to approach traditional publishing houses, cap in hand, to ask them to publish their books. Often they would be turned away and told that publishers don't talk to authors, only to agents. So the author would have to dig out the Writer's & Artists Yearbook and schlep round the agents who represented works similar to their own. The trouble with that was that often they were already representing similar authors and taking on someone else would mean mixed loyalties.

It was often down to luck and timing rather than the ability to write well. Publishers, to be fair, have always had a difficult job trying to predict and ride with the latest trends – e.g. vampires, werewolves, orphan wizards. If a modern-day Hemingway came along with a fantastic book during a period where only misery lit was selling, the book wasn't likely to survive the slush pile.

It was difficult for authors ... and not always lucrative. Even once they had been accepted, authors were generally paid just 10 or 15% by traditional publishers, only received 2 payments a year, and didn't receive regular reports about how their book sales were doing.

So when Amazon opened up the Kindle platform to allow people to publish their own books, it was like every author's prayers had been answered. Here was a way to put your book onto the database of the biggest bookseller on the planet – completely free of charge – and earn up to 70% royalties.

Many authors jumped in gleefully – ourselves included. We've done very well from Amazon and have no complaints. Nancy was traditionally published originally and decided to leave her last publisher to become an Indie (independent author) because the royalties were higher. She knows first-hand just how little marketing publishers actually do for their authors.

The Kindle gold rush was very, very lucrative for a small band of authors at the top of the pile – some you may have heard of such as John Locke, Cheryl Kaye Tardiff, Amanda Hocking – and some who manage to stay under the radar such as Steve Scott and Tom Corson-Knowles. For many authors, though, the sheer number of books available on the Kindle platform mean that it is getting hard to be found.

The figures are interesting. The UK's Guardian newspaper reported in May 2012 that the average salary earned by Indie authors was just $10,000. Half of the 1,007 authors surveyed earned less than $500. $500 a year!

The survey decided to classify the 'top earners' as those who could live off their royalties, which amounted to 10% of those surveyed. Interestingly, they noted that the top earners wrote an average of 2,047 words a day, compared to 1,557 words a day for the lower-earning authors. So writing more seems to help. Not if your book isn't found though.

As we said, it is getting harder to be found. You may be familiar with Amazon's KDP Select, the 90-day exclusivity contract that you can enter into when you publish on Kindle. It means that you can offer your book free of charge for any 5 days in that 90-day period. This used to be very effective. It meant that – if you promoted your free days via various methods – you were able to get a large number of downloads (thousands, in many cases), which accelerated your book up the bestseller listings.

There are free and paid bestseller listings. Getting into the top 100 of the free listings meant that your book had had a few thousand downloads. What that does is make it visible. People notice it. So when your book returns to being paid, it is still visible (for a while, at least) and more people buy it than did before the free promotion.

This has worked well for lots of authors, us included. However, Amazon changed the rules in March 2013. Their affiliate program 'Amazon Associates' allows people to earn commission from sales made on their sites. It is used by people with websites who promote Amazon products (not just books, all kinds of products), and people click through to Amazon's site and often buy something. Amazon then pay commission to the Amazon Associate – known as affiliate commission.

Amazon changed their policy and stopped sites which promoted free Kindle books from gaining affiliate commission. Here is their policy:

_"Associates who we determine are promoting primarily free Kindle_ _eBooks and meet both conditions below for a given month will not be eligible for any advertising fees for that month within the Amazon_ _Associates_ _Program. This change will not affect advertising fees earned prior to March 1, 2013._

  1. _At least 80% of all Kindle_ _eBooks ordered and downloaded during Sessions attributed to your Special Links are free Kindle eBooks_

  2. _20,000 or more free Kindle_ _eBooks are ordered and downloaded during Sessions attributed to your Special Links."_

So that means that many of the sites which promoted free Kindle books have closed down, or changed their policies about accepting free book information. We used to be able to schedule a couple of free days, then tell dozens of sites about them, and receive tons of valuable free publicity and downloads. Not anymore.

Kindle free days are more difficult to promote now and not as effective in terms of sales afterwards. This isn't a wholly bad thing for authors though, as many of us felt that too many people were only interested in free books. Lots of Internet Marketers jumped onto the Kindle bandwagon in the last couple of years, seeing it as a quick way to make a buck. They hurt Indie authors because their books were often rushed, unedited, badly formatted, and made from a mishmash of articles and content scraped from the Internet. So, as we said, it isn't a totally awful thing that Amazon is tightening up its rules. Maybe the Internet Marketers will move onto the next thing and leave the field clear for the lifelong authors.

But if that great method of promoting our books is less effective than it was even six month ago, what options are left open to us? We need to make our books work harder. We need to make each book available in multiple formats – eBook, paperback, audio – and promote it cleverly and inexpensively. Then move on to the next book. Keep writing, that's key.

In this book we cover how to sell your Kindle book now that KDP Select isn't working as well as it used to, and how to make it work harder by making it available in various formats. We've written it to cater for both the newcomer to Kindle and the seasoned author.

  * In Section One we cover how to get your book onto multiple platforms, quickly and easily.

  * In Section Two we cover promotional techniques with a marketing plan and ideas/resources to make it less painful and part of your weekly routine.

  * In Section Three we cover what to do if you have your book on every available platform, you do regular marketing on and offline and it still isn't selling.

  * In Section Four we look at how to save time and improve your writing.

Let's roll ...

# SECTION ONE:

Get Your Book On Multiple Platforms

## Increase Your Earnings Right Now By Getting Your Book Onto Multiple Platforms

**_"Most worthwhile achievements are the result of  
many little things done in a single direction."_**

Nido Qubein

GETTING YOUR BOOK ONTO MULTIPLE platforms is something you can do right now to enable you to earn more money from your existing books without having to do much to them. By doing this, you are giving your readers and potential readers options, which they love, give yourself more income streams, and raise your profile.

What do we mean by multiple platforms?

  * Audio format – to reach the large audience who prefer audio versions of books: blind people, truckers, children, commuters, etc. (see ACX). Audio books are available via Audible (amongst other places), which is owned by Amazon – so that means your audio version will be listed alongside your Kindle version.
  * Paperback format – we show you how to use CreateSpace so you can have a paperback version listed alongside your Kindle version. Each promotes the other and many authors find their Kindle sales improve as the paperback is necessarily more expensive than the eBook, making the eBook look like a bargain (see CreateSpace). We also talk about other print-on-demand publishers.
  * Smashwords – so you can reach readers who use Nook, Apple, and Kindle devices. Note that you can only do this if you aren't enrolled in KDP Select – Amazon's 90-day exclusivity contract. Uncheck the KDP Select enrolment box in your dashboard, then wait until your current 90 days are up before uploading your book to Smashwords (see Appendix One to find out how to unenrol from KDP Select). Note that the exclusivity only applies to digital books, not physical ones. You can publish anywhere you want to in paperback or hardback, even while enrolled in KDP Select.
  * Then there is something very special you can do with a non-fiction book's content to improve your income – turn it into a digital course. One of the best sites for this is Udemy, which has a lot of support for course creators (see Udemy).

We've both been earning our livings from writing for many years and we have seen trends come and go. We are keeping our books on Amazon – it is still the biggest sales site for books – while making them available on other sites, and seeing revenue come in from them.

We've seen many people just stick with Kindle versions of their books and miss out on a lot of potential income. Often, it's because of lack of time, or because they find the formatting requirements for CreateSpace difficult, or the prospect of getting their book recorded as an audiobook is just too daunting.

We've both been through those feelings – and come out the other side, with more royalties! We've written the following chapters to inspire and motivate you to turn the hard work you've already done into other ways of earning money without hassle or a lot of expense and heartache.

Amazon is, of course, the biggest sales platform in the world for books but some of these the platforms we talk about can increase your Amazon sales.

Let's start with exploring the world of audiobooks and how you can get your book into audio format professionally yet inexpensively ...

## ACX : Produce An Audio Version Of Your Book

**_"In my case, the listener is often in an automobile driving to work. You can concentrate on the road while still getting an audio message that can be riveting."_**

Bob Edwards

ACX (ACX.COM) IS AN effective promotional and selling tool for both non-fiction and fiction books. Part of Audible.com (a subsidiary of Amazon.com), ACX allows authors to produce an audio version of their print and eBooks. Once produced, the audio version is automatically connected to the print/eBook version's sales page on Amazon.com. Additionally, if Audible.com is the exclusive distributor, your audio will be sold on Audible.com, Amazon.com, and iTunes.

The benefits of producing an audiobook are many, including:

  1. Increased income potential (selling in more than one format).
  2. Increased credibility – having an audio version makes your book look more professional.
  3. Increased reach (Amazon, Audible, iTunes).
  4. Potentially increased exposure via the Whispersync program (see below).

According to ACX, while more and more consumers are reading via audiobooks (think iPad, iPod, smartphones, tablets), less than 5 percent of professionally published print books are made into audiobooks. This means the competition is currently low and the demand is high.

### Who Can Produce An Audiobook On ACX?

If you hold the rights to your audiobook, per your contract, and if your print or eBook is for sale or pre-sale on Amazon.com, you can start the audiobook process. Currently, ACX is only available to residents of the United States who have a current U.S. address, a Tax Identification Number, or can submit a Form W9.

If you aren't a US resident, you may be able to work with an author who is, on a shared revenue basis.

### What Is The Cost?

If you narrate your own books, there is no cost associated with producing an audiobook. If you want a professional narrator, the cost will vary depending on the length of your book and whether you want to pay a flat hourly rate or share in royalties with the narrator (called a 'Producer').

### What Types Of Books Aren't Suitable For Audio?

If your book depends on graphics or visual elements, it isn't a good match for audio. This includes books like:

  * cookbooks
  * graphic novels
  * art books
  * travel guides
  * children's picture books
  * home design

ACX states that non-fiction books are most suitable for DIY (author) narration because fiction generally requires a narrator with more 'acting chops'.

### Getting Started With ACX

#### Claim Your Book

Log into ACX.com using the same login as your Amazon account. The first thing you'll do is to 'claim' your book on Amazon. Oftentimes the system will have recognized your name and go out onto Amazon searching for your books. Otherwise, you can search for your book using your name, the title or the ASIN number.

Once claimed, a pop-up box will give you three options:

  1. You're looking for someone to narrate

  2. You already have an audio version and just want to sell

  3. You will narrate yourself

Click on the one that fits your needs. Next, sign a book posting agreement. In brief, by signing you're granting distribution rights and declaring that you own audio rights to the book. You're responsible for reading the contract before agreeing to the terms.

### Create a Title Profile

Once claimed and the agreement signed, next, you'll create a title profile. This includes a description of your book, which the system will automatically pull from Amazon. You can edit or rewrite the description. You'll then indicate whether your book is fiction or non-fiction then pick the best category for it.

On the same page, you'll get to pick the type of narrator you want to audition for the book. Filters include gender, age, accent, and 'style'. Styles range across the board from hip to hysterical, radio announcer, melodramatic, cowboy, and sarcastic - - in all, you'll find over 50 different styles to choose from.

ACX next provides an Additional Comments box. You can use this to entice potential producers. If you're paying a royalty rather than a straight per-hour fee, this is where you'll give information about your social media reach and why you think the book will sell well.

This is where you'll upload a brief excerpt of your book that will serve as an audition script. Potential narrators will use the script as an audition so you can hear how they sound. ACX recommends selecting the first page or two of the book, or a "challenging, or dramatic excerpt from the manuscript to give the narrator the opportunity to perform for you."

Once you've saved all the information, the system will ask for the number of words in your manuscript; this way you'll know how many hours of narration will be required. Typically, a narrator can produce 9,300 words in an hour. Although the system will calculate the hours for you, you can do the math yourself by dividing the number of words in your book by 9,300; an 80,000 word book will be about 8.6 hours of finished audio, a 50,000 word book 5.3 hours.

Next comes an important part of the process: How you want to pay the narrator.

Your choices are:

  1. Royalty share – 50/50 share between the author and the producer/narrator. With exclusive distribution to Audible.
  2. Pay for production – a flat fee, with exclusive distribution to Audible.
  3. Pay for production – a flat fee, with non-exclusive distribution rights to Audible.

If you choose the royalty share model, ACX will calculate share payments monthly and send payment to you and the narrator, so you won't have to deal with the bookkeeping yourself. If you pay per-hour (flat fee), the total you owe the narrator will be calculated at the completion of the project and you are responsible for paying the narrator either by check or credit card.

Your last decision is whether to give exclusive or non-exclusive distribution rights. If you choose the royalty share option (above) you are required to grant exclusive rights – otherwise it would be impossible for ACX to calculate royalty payments. Granting exclusive distribution rights means your audiobook will be sold on Amazon, Audible and iTunes. If non-exclusive you can sell through any outlet, however royalties are less (see below).

When all of the fields in this section of the site are filled out you'll get a chance to review your choices before it goes live. From the preview page you can either post the job, save it for later or edit the title profile. Once posted, you can either wait for narrators to audition or search the database and invite potential narrators.

### What Happens Next?

You'll receive emails each time a new audition arrives for your project. Log into your account and listen to the audition. At that point you can either Like, Dislike, Comment, Make an Offer, of download the audition to your own computer. If one of your friends or family members listen to audio books they might be a good sounding board for which narrator sounds best.

Once you've clicked Dislike, that particular audition leaves your production area. Keep listening until you find the audition you like, then make an offer. Don't be surprised if some narrators who only work on a royalty basis or those who charge more than your stated amount submit an audition. You are always free to make an offer that fits within your terms, regardless of the terms under which a narrator likes to work.

For example, although I specified $50 to $100 per finished hour, I had narrators auditioning who wanted $100 to $200 and even $200 to $400 an hour. My options were to click Dislike (which would remove them from contention) or send a note asking if they would negotiate fees.

If you don't like any of the narrators, click the Find Narrators button (located at the top right of the auditions page), employ your filters and search for a narrator to invite to the project.

### Make An Offer

Found a narrator you like? Make an offer. (The link is under each audition audio). On the next page fill in (again) whether the offer is for exclusive or non-exclusive distribution, royalty share or pay-for-production, and the amount you're offering per finished hour.

You'll also need to select the date you want the first 15 minutes as well as the project completion date. Next, check how long your offer is good for (24, 48 or 72 hours). At this point you'll be able to preview your offer before sending it to the narrator (producer). Now it's time to wait until your offer is accepted. If rejected, go back to listening to audition audios or seeking narrators to invite.

### Project Begins

You've chosen your narrator, they've accepted and terms are agreed upon. Now it's time to upload the book file.

Use the first 15 minutes of narration to give feedback on style, tone, etc. This is a great time to finely tune the sound you want, including letting the narrator know if they're too soft-spoken, use too much of an accent (or not enough), etc.

I also recommend using a spreadsheet or an additional document telling the narrator how to pronounce words that might be unfamiliar. For example, on one of my projects, my narrator pronounced Fort Duquesne as 'doo-kez-knee' (which is kind of how it looks). However, the correct pronunciation if 'doo-cane'. My method is to go through each section of my project and make a list of words that might cause a problem.

Once the first 15 minutes is okayed and the project is launched, the narrator will upload the book by sections or chapters. Be sure to listen to each upload just to double check that lines aren't skipped over or words mis-pronounced. It's easy to catch mistakes if you read your manuscript as you're listening to the recording.

Don't forget that narrators will read any front or back matter – so you may want to be sure that it includes important information such as copyright, a Preface or Introduction and a section at the end About the Author (which hopefully includes a link to your website).

If you aren't satisfied the first time you listen to your completed audiobook, you can ask the Publisher to make up to two rounds of corrections, or edits. After everything has been recorded and okayed, the narrator will merge all of the files and indicate (on his end of the system) that he's completed the job.

Lastly, let the narrator know which short excerpt you want used as the 'teaser' that people can listen to before they buy. This is typically a minute or so of one of the files.

### You Need A Cover

During the narration process, if you click on the title of your book from within your production area, you'll see a place to upload the cover of your audiobook. You cannot use your book cover because the dimensions won't be correct. An audio book cover has to measure at least 2400 x 2400 pixels. It must be square, in .jpg format, no less than 72 dpi resolution, RGB, and include the name of the title and the author.

It's important to note that the image must be squared; this means a true square, not a book jacket cover with borders added to the side to create the square or a book jacket that's been stretched to meet the requirements.

At about the same time, ACX will ask you to indicate when payment has been sent (my narrator gives me an address to which I send a check). The narrator must indicate when the check is received before ACX considers the project totally completed.

Now it's time to wait. From this point, it takes ACX from 14-20 days to approve the project and place your book on sale.

### Royalty Payments

ACX has recently reduced its royalty rates but they are still lucrative for authors. It used to be that we could earn between 50 and 90% of retail sales but this has now been reduced to a maximum of 40%, as follows:

  1. Royalty share – 40% of retail sales split 50/50 between the author and producer/narrator.
  2. Pay for production Audible exclusive – 40% of retail sales.
  3. Pay for production non-exlusive – 25% of retail sales.

There is a bonus, though. If your audiobook is the first audio book purchased by someone new to Audible, you get $50 (or $25 each if you have gone for a royalty share with a producer/narrator). This has gone up, it used to be $25 under the old royalty terms (prior to March 2014).

Payments are made when your royalty amounts to at least $50.

### Dashboard

ACX gives authors a private dashboard from which to track sales. You can filter results by all sales for all titles or for specific titles and a date range. Number of sales are categorized in columns by:

  * **ALC** : These are units purchased by customers who do not have an Audible Listener membership.

  * **AL** : Audiobook bought by Audible Listener members using their membership credits (they get 2 a month)

  * **ALO** : Audiobooks bought by Audible Listener members but not using their membership credits

Sales can be exported as a PDF or in CSV format.

### Pricing & Whispersync

Pricing is one area of audiobook production over which you have no control.

Unlike Kindle, CreateSpace, or Smashwords, you have no input as to pricing. ACX will generally price depending on length. This means you might have a Kindle book selling for $2.99 while the audio version goes for over $6.00.

Typical pricing:

  * under 3 hours: under $10
  * 3 – 5 hours: $10 - $20
  * 5 – 10 hours: $15 - $25
  * 10 – 20 hours: $20 - $30
  * over 20 hours: $25 - 35

As to Whispersync – If a buyer has a Kindle Fire or Kindle Fire HD and your book has been accepted into Whispersync, the buyer can sync the Kindle and Audio versions via their devices. For example, if they're listening to the audio version while in the car, when they fire up their Kindle, the Kindle will sync to wherever the audio left off. Pretty cool.

If you want your book included in Whispersync, it's important that the narrated words perfectly mirror the words in the Kindle book. When I contacted ACX about getting my title into Whispersync, this is the response I received:

"In order for a title to become Whispersync for Voice-ready, the audiobook must go through Audible 's internal QA process and achieve at least a 97% sync rate with the Kindle eBook. We are working diligently to have all of our eligible titles made Whispersync for Voice-ready, but at this time we do not have a specific QA submission date for your audiobook."

If someone buys your Kindle book and you are in the Whispersync program, the buyer will have the opportunity to purchase the audio version at a price lower than if they bought the audio version alone. This decrease in price is to encourage buyers to give Whispersync a try.

For details about the program, click here:

**_<https://www.acx.com/help/learn-about-whispersync-for-voice/201017330>_**

### Promotion

ACX (Amazon) want you to be successful. That's why they've included an entire section on the site devoted to promoting your audiobook. You may already be active in social media but this mini-course also includes suggestions for email marketing, video, podcasting, blogging, and syndication.

Included, too, is a section called Take Advantage of Amazon. The suggestions here are excellent, not only for your audiobooks but for books in general. Tops among the suggestions is to post reviews for other books in your genre and include a link back to your Author Central page on Amazon.

If you don't have an Author Central page, get one! They're free and all of your titles will link to the page. Set yours up (and then claim your books) at:

**_<https://authorcentral.amazon.com/>_**

When setting up your Author Central page, don't forget to add book trailers, videos, RSS feed from your blog, and the feed from your Twitter account. It will keep the page fresh, interesting, and give you excellent social proof (looked upon favorably by Google and other search engines).

### Nancy's Personal Experience With ACX

I wrote a Today in History book that had 365 stories, one for each day of the year. I decided to remove the full book from the market and rewrite and re-edit each month as a separate Kindle book and audio file.

I had spoken with author Ed Spina about ACX and, based on his experience with increased sales via audio, I decided to try the system. One difference, though, was that Ed narrated his own script while I wanted a narrator.

( <http://www.amazon.com/Edwin-Harkness-Spina/e/B001K8XQK2/ref=ntt_athr_dp_pel_1> )

Because each of my dates in history was a mini-story, I wanted a narrator with a good 'storytelling' style. After several people auditioned I finally chose John Edmondson to do each of the 12 months of narration. As Michelle and I are writing this book, I'm into my third month with John and have added an additional book (not related to the series) for him to narrate.

John is an exceptionally fast producer, generally getting me the 15 minute initial audio within a day of beginning the project, with the entire month's worth completed within only a few days. I listened to each narration and made notes on the few instances that a word or name was mispronounced, then sent the information over to John so he could re-record and edit the original file.

Whenever John had a question about pronunciation or style he sent me an email so I could make the final decision about which way to go.

While John was working on narration, I began creating the square cover required by ACX. Because I can use Photoshop I did it myself; if you don't want to get involved with that portion, you may want to find a designer on oDesk (<http://odesk.com/>) or Fiverr ( <http://fiverr.com/>).

When my project was complete, John compiled all of the individual recordings (including the front and back matter as well as the 'teaser' audio) then set the system in motion for me to sign-off and start the payment process. Once finished, it took ACX almost three weeks to make my book available through Amazon, Audible and iTunes.

As an interesting FYI, my first sale was made to an Audible.com member.

## Sell Your Book In The iBookstore, Kobo, Nook, Sony, And More

**_"How does somebody know what they want  if they haven't even seen it?"_**

Steve Jobs

To be on sales platforms other than Amazon, your book has to be out of KDP Select. That means you lose access to free days or countdown deals. That needs some thought as it's quite a loss. Free days are great for getting your book in front of a large number of people and countdown deals - well promoted - can result in much increased sales.

Plenty of authors feel uncomfortable about having all their income coming from one source, though. After all, if Amazon decided to ban you for some reason, your income could disappear overnight.

The solution for many of us is to have one or two books enrolled in KDP Select at any one time and other books available elsewhere (as well as Amazon, but just not enrolled in KDP Select). The advantages of other platforms are attractive but be aware that many authors report small royalties from them. You need to promote.

### SALES AGGREGATORS

THERE ARE SEVERAL COMPANIES THAT will work with you to format and publish your book on a variety of platforms, including Apple's iBookstore. These companies are known as aggregators.

If you want to sell your books on platforms like Kobo and Nook, you can open an account with them directly to format and upload your books. If you use an Apple computer with one of Apple's authoring software solutions installed you can also upload directly to the iBookstore. Those of us who use PCs and want to sell in the iBookstore need to go through an approved aggregator.

Of the five Apple-approved services, only three accept self-published authors:

  * BookBaby <http://bookbaby.com>
  * INscribe Digital <http://www.inscribedigital.com/>
  * Smashwords <http://smashwords.com>

While Smashwords is free to use, BookBaby and INscribe Digital both charge authors to format and globally distribute books. That said, their distribution channels include more sales outlets than Smashwords. For the purposes of this book (and keeping author expenses minimal) this section will concentrate on Smashwords.

### Smashwords

Michelle's daughter works part-time in a book store. They may as well just keep her pay, she spends nearly all of it in store. She loves books, always has. She was given a Kindle by her aunt and, while seeing the usefulness of it, remains passionate about print books.

She had an idea one day last year that Amazon has just taken up (MatchBook). She said, "Why don't publishers put coupons in paperbacks so you can download the eBook for just, say, $1 when you buy the paperback? I'd download the Kindle version if I really like a book, because then it's there for going on holiday. But I'm not going to pay full price for two versions. Do Amazon allow you to do that?"

The answer, of course, was no, they didn't. That was until October 2013, when they introduced MatchBook. MatchBook is a great innovation - it gives authors/publishers the ability to offer the Kindle version at a reduced cost or free when someone buys the paperback version. The Kindle version must be 50% less than its usual price and can only cost either: Free, $.99, $1.99, or $2.99.

Smashwords, however, offer the ability to create coupons in a more flexible way. That, if nothing else, is a great reason to get your book on Smashwords. It offers more flexibility that MatchBook, as well as making your eBooks available in multiple formats.

It's not the only good reason to be on Smashwords though. If you can get past the clunky interface, it is well worth making your books available via Smashwords. Don't forget that you can't publish on platforms other than Amazon-owned ones (e.g. CreateSpace and Audible) if your book is enrolled in KDP Select.

#### Reasons To Join Smashwords

**Get Into The iBookstore** **& Others**

Unless you have a Mac computer, Smashwords is the only way to make your book available for iBooks. You can also make your book available to readers who use the Kobo, Nook, Sony eReader, and more. In August 2012 Smashwords also started distributing to the Axis360 platform for distribution into public libraries.

They now give authors and publishers the ability to publish pre-order books to Apple, Barnes & Noble (Nook), and Kobo.

The iBookstore is becoming increasingly important. They are the #2 seller of eBooks this year (2013). Interestingly, Apple report that the iBooks app is downloaded **_more than the Kindle_** **_app_**. Smashwords has a good relationship with Apple.

Apple sell millions of iPhones and iPads every week – this is a hugely important market to tap into.

**It's Free**

> Smashwords is free to use, with no setup fee, maintenance fee, eBook conversion fee, or fee for distribution to its sales channels (iBookstore, Sony, Kobo, Nook, Diesel).

**The Ability To Create Coupons**

> This is a fantastic facility and gives us the ability to make our eBooks available to reviewers, book bloggers, family members, forum members, etc. You could use them to give out as prizes in Facebook contests, speaking engagements, etc.

**Higher Royalty Rates**

> Authors get 85% royalties, as opposed to Amazon's 70% or 30%.

**Multiple Formats**

> You can make your book available in multiple formats to readers, so they have a choice and aren't limited to using their Kindle, as they would be if they bought it from Amazon.

**A Lot Of People Prefer Smashwords** **To Amazon**

> Until we started researching this book, we didn't realize how many people prefer the smaller, less glossy Smashwords site to the big, splashy Amazon site. People who don't like multinational conglomerates tend to prefer Smashwords. We have come across a surprising number of people who much prefer buying books from Smashwords rather than Amazon. One reason is that they are given a choice of formats, so they can download the book they buy for multiple eReaders (or apps).

**One Sales Report – Multiple Sales Platforms**

> Smashwords produce one sales report rather than individual ones from multiple sales platforms. Easy to understand and helpful when filling out tax forms!

#### Difficult Things About Smashwords

**The Formatting**

> Many authors struggle with the Smashwords 'Meatgrinder', the conversion engine they use to make manuscripts available in the formats they offer. The Meatgrinder has improved, it used to take hours and hours to convert a book and now it is a matter of minutes. It throws up all sorts of errors though. One way around this is to find someone to format your book for you.

**Some People Prefer Kindle**

> When you buy an eBook on Amazon it downloads automatically to your Kindle or Kindle app. When buying an eBook on Smashwords you are given the ability to download the file in the format of your choice, then you have to load it onto your device or app. This is a problem for some people, who prefer the ease of Amazon's service. However, there is nothing to stop you having your eBook available on Amazon as well as Smashwords and other sites. The only thing preventing that is KDP Select.

##### SMASHWORDS BASICS

Go to Smashwords.com and click JOIN FOR FREE.

Enter basic information – name, email, location, etc., - and wait for a confirmation email, which will include a confirmation link to complete your registration.

Once you've clicked that you will be able to log in and explore the site. Click the PUBLISH button on the navigation bar when you're ready to add your books.

Smashwords ask that you don't attempt to upload a book before reading The Smashwords Style Guide:

<http://www.smashwords.com/books/view/52>

One thing to be aware of is the Smashwords Premium Catalog. Premium Catalog books must meet the mechanical requirements of their online distribution partners. Acceptance is a two-step process:

_(From Smashwords_ _.com): In step one, we run an automated filter we call AutoVetter that checks to see if you followed the Smashwords Style Guide. AutoVetter provides you immediate feedback after you publish or make changes, and will guide you on how to correct obvious problems that will prevent you from gaining inclusion in the catalog._

_The moment your book completed conversion, you'll see the AutoVetter messages (if any) on-screen, and we'll also email you the messages. Books that pass the AutoVetter screen are then given fast-track priority for the second, manual stage of evaluation._

_Step two is a manual inspection. We review fast-track books first, so most fast-track books are usually approved for the catalog within a week (if we're not backlogged)._

A couple of things here. AutoVetter is Smashword's online utility that checks your manuscript to be sure it follows the Smashwords Style Guide. The Style Guide is the Holy Grail of getting your book into the system. It's free and you can download it from Smashwords in multiple formats, including for Kindle, Nook, PDF, iPad, etc.

<https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/52>

Secondly, to get into the iBookstore and Sony, you'll need an ISBN number (ISBN = International Standard Book Number). You can provide your own ISBN by purchasing it from Bowker (<https://www.myidentifiers.com/isbn/main>), currently selling at $125 for one ISBN and $250 for ten.

Or, if you're willing to have Smashwords be listed as the 'Publisher' of your book, you can get a free ISBN from them. Information on Smashwords' ISBNs is here:

<https://www.smashwords.com/dashboard/ISBNManager>

[image]

Smashwords offer helpful notifications to let you know if you need to make any modifications to get your book into the Premium Catalog, or if you need to add an ISBN (to get into Apple, Sony, & Kobo):

When you go to your dashboard, you will see the notifications in detail.

Once your book is being published, you can set the price (whatever you want to charge) as well as the percentage of the book that readers can sample for free, if any. For a full-length book, 15 to 20 percent is typical. If you want your book distributed to mobile platforms such as Aldiko, sampling is required, otherwise it's optional.

When setting price, one thing to consider is making your book available for free – particularly if you write several books on the same topic (non-fiction) or are writing a series (fiction). According to Smashwords, free books receive, on average, about 100 times more downloads than priced books. Readers are more apt to download your freebie if you're unknown to them; if they like your writing, they'll opt to spend money next time. A free book is the equivalent of retail's 'loss leader'.

It may be worth writing a shorter book specially to make free, as an introduction to your writing, for readers. Many of the people who have made a killing on Kindle have done so by having a permanently free book as a loss leader. Or, if you have a series of books, make the first one free and end it on a cliff hanger. No-one can just sit and not know what happens next – they will pay to find out!

Amazon will price-match so if you want your book to show at a zero cost permanently, price your Smashwords at zero. So this is the answer to how to make a book permanently free on Amazon. Of course, Amazon is famous for doing turn-arounds on policy, so this may not always be the case.

Before you set prices, pop over to Smashwords and take advantage of the massive study they did to analyze indie eBook sales. Of note is the fact that a 99c book will on average sell 3.9 times as many books as a book priced over $10.00. A $2.99 book sells about 4 times as many units. The study's findings are here:

<http://blog.smashwords.com/2013/05/new-smashwords-survey-helps-authors.html>

Once you're up and running, check book sales by logging into your Dashboard, where you'll find data on sampling copies downloaded, sales (including libraries).

But before all of this goodness happens, you'll need to get past the AutoVetter Dragon guarding the gates. Here's how:

#### Autovetter Blues

About that AutoVetter thing. If you follow the free Style Guide to the nth degree, your manuscript will fly through the process without a hitch. Apparently my ability to follow directions is substandard as my manuscript kept generating errors. What to do?

Keep slogging away? Definitely not a good use of my time.

Hire help (our recommendation) – and where to find them:

1. Send an email to list@smashwords.com and you'll instantly receive via autoresponder Mark's List – named for founder Mark Coker. The list will link to resources for book cover designers as well as formatters. As you skim the list of recommended formatters note that some will do fiction only, some charge by the page or project.

2. Fiverr.com We go into detail about Fiverr in another chapter, but wanted to at least note here that provider Bookaholic <http://fiverr.com/bookaholic> will format your manuscript to pass the AutoVetter for $5. Nancy has used him on several books and all of them have gone through AutoVetter seamlessly.

#### Coupons

Coupons are a very valuable feature of the Smashwords dashboard. From Smashwords.com:

_Smashwords_ _authors can use the Smashwords Coupon Generator to create custom coupon codes for readers, reviewers or contest participants can use for discounts or free books. It's easy to create coupons_ _. You can set cents or dollars off, or percentage off, and also set expiration data. Coupons_ _are a great way to build urgency for the customer to act. You can promote your coupon codes to your personal mailing list, your website, blog and social networks._

If you think about the value in giving newsletter or blog readers a special that only THEY can get, you'll understand the value of being able to create coupons. They are also useful to be able to send to reviewers – but do check first as they may prefer a Kindle version, or a paperback copy.

Coupons can be created by clicking DASHBOARD > COUPON MANAGER. Click GENERATE COUPON next to the book you want to promote. In the generator, enter the discount you want to offer, or alter the price. This can be anything from 1 to 75% or 100% percent. You will be shown how much royalty you will make (or not!).

Smashwords say that the promotional price should be 99c or higher, to cover their transaction costs. If, however, you want to make your book free you can do, as they won't have any transaction costs to deduct. Click GENERATE COUPON when ready.

You will be shown the coupon code you have created.

Coupons are designed to be entered when a customer adds your book to their shopping basket.

They look something like the one below – they aren't URLs. They are designed to be entered when a customer adds your book to their shopping basket.

[image]

Back in the Coupon Manager, you will be able to see the coupons you have created – and you also have the option to cancel them, if you wish. You can go back into created coupons to edit them – i.e. change the price or date – by clicking EDIT COUPON.

#### Promotional Tips

One way of using coupons is to send an email, if you have an email list connected to your website. You can also add it to your blog, Facebook page, Twitter posts, email signature, and in press releases.

Smashwords have a good blog, where you can sign up to receive via email. This company does a great job of posting tips for authors as well as industry news and additions to the company's offerings to authors. You'll find a sign-up form in the right column of the blog:

http://blog.smashwords.com

For example, one of the newest features is the Series Manager. This allows authors to indicate books that belong in a series, thus making it easy for readers to pick up all of the books in the series. You can also indicate the ideal sequence of the series so readers don't have to guess the order in which to read the books.

The blog post about this feature is here:

<http://blog.smashwords.com/2013/09/new-smashwords-series-manager-improves.html>

Other free resources for learning more about promoting your books are two books written by Mark Coker:

**_Smashwords_** **_Book Marketing Guide_**

<https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/305>

**_EBook Publishing Success_**

<https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/145431>

Both books are free and downloadable in multiple formats.

### EXPANDED DISTRIBUTION

In late October 2013, Smashwords announced a distribution agreement with Oyster, an ebook subscription service. Here's how Oyster works: Subscribers pay $9.95 per month and have access to Oyster's catalog of ebooks. Books are read via the Oyster app, which is available for iPhone and iPad. Readers cannot transfer or share books with other readers.

Author payments are 60% of your book's retail price, beginning when a subscriber reads more than 10% of your book. In short, it's the same rate you'll be paid when your book is purchased through Apple and Barnes and Noble.

We feel that every time a distribution channel is added to Smashwords, authors will have less and less of a reason to give exclusive rights to any one platform. For your books to be included in Oyster distribution, they will need to be included in Smashword's Premium Catalog. From your Smashwords dashboard, click to Channel Manager to include Oyster as a distribution point.

### SMASHWORDS VIDEOS

We both believe that the more resources a platform offers authors, the higher the possibilities for increased sales. To that end, we're happy to include information about CEO, Mark Coker's release of several YouTube videos. Videos are based on workshops Coker has done at various writer's conferences. Titles include:

#1 - An Introduction to Ebook Publishing (a primer and e-publishing checklist):

<http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=khM4czIJUVM>

#2 - The Secrets to Ebook Publishing Success (best practices secrets for reaching more readers):

<http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jnd7jYcjqm8M>

#3 - Smashwords Survey Helps Authors Sell More Books (pricing strategy and fun metrics):

<http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2rrl4NExo3Y>

#4 - 10 Trends Driving the Future of Authorship (indie authors are the future of publishing):

<http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NbT7r-DUa6M>

#5 - How to Reach More Readers at Apple iBooks (merchandising secrets to grow sales):

<http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xKwwcL_FS_c>

The complete collection is at:

<http://www.youtube.com/user/smashwords>.

∞

Smashwords is growing in importance both in its own right and as an aggregator. We suggest getting one or two books on there when their 90 day exclusivity contract is up on KDP Select. Try them on there, promote them, and see how they do. If they don't do well you can remove them from Smashwords and enroll in KDP Select again.

## CreateSpace:  
Get Your Book Into Paperback

**_"If you don't get your book into print  
you're leaving money on the table."_**

Michelle Campbell-Scott

CREATESPACE IS A PRINT-ON-demand (POD) service. That means that you can list your books on Amazon (it is automatic) and, when someone orders one, CreateSpace will print that copy and send it.

There's no risk – and no cost to you either. It is completely free to get your books on CreateSpace. The only costs involved will be if you:

  * Want to enable **expanded distribution.** That means CreateSpace will list your book with catalogues and suppliers who supply to book stores. In the past this wasn't always worth the money because bookstores were anti-Indie. However, things are changing and more book stores are becoming enlightened as Indie books are so popular. Why wouldn't you stock something that customers are asking for?
  * Want to order a **proof copy** **.** This is a good idea because things look different in printed form than on a screen. It isn't essential, however. Authors are able to buy their books at cost from CreateSpace – so for, say, $3 instead of a retail price of $8 – then they just need to pay postage. CreateSpace print books in the US so if you are US-based the cost of the postage isn't too bad. It isn't bad to Europe either but anywhere further away and the cost starts to look a bit scary.

We have lost count of the number of authors who have told us they tried to get their book into the format that CreateSpace requires, and gave up in despair. It's true that there are a few formatting quirks but once you get your head around them you will be formatting your books in under an hour.

If your books are currently 'only' available as eBooks you are missing out. Not getting your books onto CreateSpace is like leaving money on the table. Having your books available as paperbacks means:

  * Giving readers a **choice** – people like choice, especially for things like recipe books (not everyone wants to risk spills on an eReader) or picture books. Your paperback will be listed alongside your Kindle version on Amazon and people will be able to see the different options (if you have an audio version it will also appear).

  * You will probably make some **paperback sales**. Amazon state that they sell 115 Kindle books for every 100 physical books (paperbacks and hardbacks combined sales). So clearly Kindle book sales have now overtaken physical book sales. Physical books ARE still selling, though – and selling well. If you are selling 115 copies of your Kindle book per month and you started to sell 100 copies of it in paperback I'm sure you would be delighted! That's unlikely, though, as the cost of the paperback is necessarily higher than the cost of the Kindle version due to the production costs. That's not a bad thing, though, because it can mean ...
  * **Increased Kindle** **sales** . When customers search for your book or come across it in the listings on Amazon, they will find either its Kindle page or its paperback page. Whichever one they click on, they will get to see the prices of both though, because Amazon lists them together. To many people, the Kindle version looks like a bargain, compared to the price of the paperback. So many authors enjoy increased Kindle sales when they provide a paperback option.
  * The ability to schedule a **Goodreads** **Giveaway**. Goodreads is a large (19 million members) book cataloguing site. From its early days as a simple way to display the books members had read or wanted to read on virtual shelves, it has now evolved into such a valuable database that Amazon bought it for an undisclosed sum in March 2013. The Giveaway section very popular. It is made up of individual contests to win books. Publishers and authors schedule these contests (free of charge) and members simply click on a button to enter. The big thrill for us as authors is that each giveaway contest attracts an average of 825 entries. That means over 800 people will have seen your book who may not otherwise have come across it. Plenty of books have become bestsellers following Goodreads giveaways, including _50 Shades Of Grey_ and _Matched_.
  * More **credibility** as an author. Having a paperback gives you more prestige and credibility than just having a digital book. You have the ability to send your book to important reviewers and book bloggers, take some to sell if you have any speaking engagements, donate as raffle prizes for charities, take into local shops to see if they would be willing to sell it. All of these things can raise your own and your book's profile in a way that digital books can't.

Getting your book into paperback format need not cost you a cent, and it could bring in a lot of dollars. Let's have a look at how to go about it.

### Who Can Produce A Paperback On CreateSpace?

Anyone with either an existing Kindle book, eBook in other format, or finished manuscript. If you hold the rights to an out of print book (check your contract) you may be able to publish it yourself (and get it into Kindle format).

### What Is The Cost?

Nothing. Putting your book on CreateSpace is completely free of charge because CreateSpace – like KDP – will take a percentage of your royalties.

The only potential cost involved is if:

  * You want to buy a proof copy of your book. You can proof it online but many authors prefer to have a copy sent to them. Authors pay much less than the price the book will be sold for on Amazon though. Postage, however, can bump the price up – especially for authors outside the US. In many cases, though, you can get a copy of your book sent to you for around $10.

  * You want to pay for extended distribution – to make your book available to bookstores, libraries, etc. This costs $25.

### What Types Of Books Aren't Suitable For CreateSpace?

Most books are suitable for CreateSpace apart from:

  * Books requiring matt finish covers (e.g. some textbooks or specific genres).

  * Pop-up and other books that have additions to the pages.
  * Unusual sizes.
  * Hardbacks – you will need to go to LightningSource to get a hardback copy of your book ( www.lightningsource.com).

### The CreateSpace Procedure

There are eight steps to getting your book into paperback format on CreateSpace:

  1. Join CreateSpace, choose to add a new book, add your details and your book's information.

  2. Upload your manuscript (formatted to CreateSpace's standards).

  3. Upload your cover (again to CreateSpace's standards, or use their free cover design software).

  4. Run the book through their 'Interior Reviewer', which spots any potential problems such as incorrect margins, wrong book size, photos that don't have a high enough resolution, etc.

  5. Decide on a price – they give guidelines.

  6. Order a proof copy [optional – you can proof online, which is a good option if you live a long way from the US, as postage costs can be very high.

  7. Check the proof when it arrives, make any necessary corrections to the manuscript and re-submit it. Often you don't need to order an additional proof copy after making changes as you will have a good idea of what it will look like, having seen the first proof.

  8. Decide on distribution channels – pay for expanded distribution ($25) if you choose to do so.

It's as simple as that! Well it sounds it – actually a lot of authors stumble at the formatting step, so we'll go into that in detail.

Let's have a look at the first step, joining CreateSpace ...

### Getting Started With CreateSpace

It is quick and easy to join CreateSpace. If you already have an account with Amazon you can use that to register with CreateSpace. If you don't, they will create one for you (whether you want an Amazon account or not!).

You have to supply your personal details – name, address, contact numbers, tax information, bank information – in order to go forward with publishing your books with them. Then you can simply click ADD NEW TITLE to start setting up your book.

Then you add the information CreateSpace require, namely:

  * Your book's title, subtitle [optional] & your author name or penname – make sure these are exactly the same as you entered into KDP so that your paperback will be linked to your Kindle version.

  * ISBN – CreateSpace give four options for ISBNs (two if you are outside the US), which we'll look at later.
  * Your formatted manuscript – which they call the book's INTERIOR.
  * Your book's cover – again, there are options which we cover later.

Before you can do that, though, you need to format your manuscript to their requirements – and here's where you need to learn a few things.

### How To Format For CreateSpace

Setting up your manuscript for CreateSpace takes a bit of getting used to, so it is best to download one of their free templates to find out how they have set it up. You can download them at:

**_<https://www.createspace.com/en/community/docs/DOC-1323>_**

Generally, they have:

  * Margins set to 0.76" at the top, bottom and inside edge and 0.50" at the outside edge.

  * Gutter set to 0.13" – this is the inside edge of the book, where it will be bound. The gutter size increases with the page count.
  * Mirrored pages.
  * Paper size set to the book's trim size – e.g. 5"x8", 6"x9", 8"x10", etc.
  * Sections starting on odd pages.
  * Headers & footers different odd & even and different first page. This prevents headers and/or footers appearing on chapter title pages (a publishing no-no).
  * Vertical alignment – top of the page.

If you want to, you can apply these settings to your existing manuscript. Then all you have to do is replace page breaks before new chapters with odd page section breaks, add any information you want in the headers (e.g. book title, author name, chapter name), and add some page numbers (which can be in the header or footer – generally footer for fiction).

Don't be afraid to format your book quickly first and run it through the Interior Reviewer to see how it is turning out. You can spot errors early on before wasting too much time going down the wrong route!

### ISBNs

Kindle books don't need ISBNs – although they can have them – as Amazon will assign their own number, an ASIN. Paperback books do need ISBNs though. They are 10 or 13-digit numbers that are assigned to books to identify them. They are what bookstores and libraries use to find books. An ISBN not only identifies the book, it lists the publisher, edition, page count, binding type, trim size, etc. So they are very important.

Once you have chosen your option, CreateSpace will put it – in the form of a barcode – onto the back of your book's cover.

CreateSpace give us four options for ISBNs:

  * Free – listing CreateSpace as the publisher. This can only be used for selling your paperback on Amazon.

  * $10* – listing you or your publishing name as the publisher. This can only be used for selling your paperback on Amazon.

  * $99* – a custom universal ISBN, which lists you or your publishing name as the publisher and allows you to use some expanded distribution channels.

  * Your own ISBN – which again lists you or your publishing name as the publisher and allows unlimited distribution/sales. The cost of an ISBN depends on which country you live in. Find your country on: www.isbn-international.org, under 'National Agencies'.

It is perfectly fine, especially for new authors, to go for the free ISBN option and have CreateSpace listed as the publisher. Once you can afford your own ISBNs, though, you may prefer to have yourself as the publisher and have the option to sell on platforms other than Amazon.

Another advantage of having your own ISBN is that you can link your book's reviews on Goodreads and Kobo. (Goodreads reviews are widely syndicated, so you could see your reviews all over the place!)

You have to make your ISBN choice before you can order a proof copy of your book, so it's a decision to make early on in the process.

*Only available to US authors/publishers.

### Where People Sometimes Go Wrong

Here are the most common stumbling points that people report when trying to get their book on CreateSpace:

  * Not formatting the book's interior to CreateSpace's standards.

  * Not using images with high enough resolutions.

  * Not using good software to convert from Word to PDF.

  * Allowing Word to compress images.

  * Not formatting the cover to CreateSpace's requirements.

  * Not ordering a physical proof copy. This can be a problem if you use images in your book. CreateSpace will complain if any images are less than 300dpi but actually you can get away with 200dpi in most cases. If you don't order a physical proof, though, you won't be sure until you start getting reviews that complain about blurry images in your book.

### How To Avoid The Pitfalls

  * Use the CreateSpace templates (or, if you have joined Michelle's CreateSpace course on Udemy, one of her templates). Look at the way the template has been set up and make sure you understand if section breaks are starting on odd pages, if headers on odd and even pages are treated differently.

  * Get to know how to use Word styles. This is super important. Your entire manuscript should be in one style – e.g. Normal – apart from the chapter titles and any subtitles or headings within the chapters.

  * Get to know how to use Word page numbering.

  * Get to know how to use Word sections rather than page breaks. Specifically, you need to add a section break, rather than a page break, to indicate where one chapter ends and a new one begins. This will mean that the page numbering will work properly.

  * Use the inbuilt feature to add a table of contents based on the styles you have used.

  * Your cover will be different to your Kindle one because it won't be just the front image, it will have a spine and back as well. You won't know the dimensions you need until you have uploaded your manuscript to CreateSpace and run it successfully through the Interior Reviewer. That's because the size of the spine is dependent on the number of pages in your book. Once you know the number of pages you can order the cover from your designer as you will know the size you need.

### Some Additional Points

#### Copyright

Most of us know not to use any images we have found online in our books but the same also applies to fonts. If you have had your computer for a while and/or have numerous software programs on it, the chances are that you have built up quite a variety on available fonts that you can use in your Word (and other) documents. Don't assume that you can just use any of these in your paperback book as fonts, like images, come with license agreements.

Generally, you are safe with standard Microsoft fonts as long as you credit them on the legals page at the front of your book with a line saying which fonts you used and add:

**_Used with permission from Microsoft_**

This is a Microsoft requirement and they can be litigious so do be careful.

If you aren't sure if a font came with Microsoft software (such as Office), check this Microsoft page (it's a very long URL so we've used a URL shortener here):

**_<http://bit.ly/officefonts>_**

You can also find fonts online. One good place is Google Fonts:

**_<http://www.google.com/fonts>_**

#### Font Choices

Professional designs and book formatters often say that the mark of an amateur is to have too much – too many graphics, too many colors, too many fonts.

The general agreement is to stick to a maximum of two fonts for your book's interior. One for the 'Normal' style, the majority of the book, and another one for titles/headings. You can get away with a different font for headers as well, if you really want to!

Then it comes down to serif or sans serif. Until recently, Microsoft's default font for Office was Times New Roman.

Times is a serif font. Serifs are the little sticky out bits at the edges of letters in some fonts. You can see them in particular at the edges of the 'T' above.

Now serif fonts are considered easier to read on paper and in book format, which was why Microsoft chose Times New Roman as its default because in the past most documents prepared on computers were eventually printed out.

Now it's all different and less documents are read in printed format. We have switched to doing most things online and on handheld devices. So Microsoft's default font is now Calibri.

Calibri is a sans serif font. Sans serif literally means 'without serifs'. Sans serif fonts are more rounded and are considered clearer and easier to read online and on tablets and smartphones. So if you are formatting for Kindle or other eReaders, you definitely want a sans serif font, it makes a better user experience for your reader.

For paperbacks, though, serif fonts are the ones to go for. We get a good choice with Office.

Avoid gimmicky, fancy, or handwriting fonts in books except for very special purposes. They are just too hard to read and can look unprofessional. Of course if you have written a quirky children's book then a fancy font could be appropriate but do remember that readability is reduced with these types of fonts.

#### Exclusivity

Like KDP's 90-day exclusivity contract, there are some exclusivity things with CreateSpace.

If you use:

  * Their free ISBN option;
  * Their cover design software (including any of their stock images);

then you aren't able to sell your book anywhere other than CreateSpace/Amazon.

This causes some confusion, leading people to believe that any book created on CreateSpace is prohibited from being sold outside of CreateSpace – not true. Using your own formatting and photos for the interior and cover, as well as your own ISBN, means that you aren't restricted to CreateSpace/Amazon. You can, in fact, have your book published in paperback format with CreateSpace and in hardback format with LightningSource, if you wish. We wouldn't recommend that as hardback sales have slumped, but if you have produced a high value coffee table book then you might be ideally place for a hardback version. If nothing else, it will make your paperback look like a bargain!

### Michelle's Experience With CreateSpace

I self-published my first book on KDP just as a test. It's about one of my hobbies, aquaponics. I was doing a course on how to write and format for Kindle and wanted to give it a go. It sold surprisingly well. I started looking into how to get it into print, as an aquaponics supplier was interested in stocking it.

A Google search and check with author friends revealed the news that print-on-demand was the way to go and that CreateSpace and LightningSource were the two main contenders.

Then I got bogged down in all the conflicting advice on which was best. Opinions vary tremendously. I signed up for both and found the requirements of each to be overly complicated. I was busy finishing off my next book at the time so put the paperback project aside.

When I had more time I looked into it again and eventually decided that CreateSpace was the one for me – being cheaper, quicker, and easier than LightningSource.

Then I hit the Interior Reviewer. I felt like it had a personal vendetta against me! I followed all their advice, used their templates, and still the Interior Reviewer came up with innumerable errors in my manuscript.

It wasn't until a few months later, when I was researching and writing a book about Goodreads that I realized I had to get my act together and suss out how to use CreateSpace. I had discovered the power of the Goodreads Giveaway! If for no other reason than to buy a copy or two to schedule a Giveaway, I desperately wanted my books in print.

This coincided with news from a friend that his paperback earnings had just overtaken his Kindle earnings. Oh boy did I want my books in print!

So I spent weeks getting to know CreateSpace inside and out and I'm very glad I did. My books are now all in print and I can format a manuscript in an hour or two rather than days and days!

My earnings from CreateSpace are growing but they're nowhere near my Kindle earnings so I think it really does depend on your genres.

I am delighted with the results of my Goodreads Giveaways and love having physical copies of my books that I can send to reviewers, take with me on speaking engagements, to networking meetings, give to relatives, etc. Even just seeing them side-by-side on the bookcase at home gives me a thrill!

I would urge you to get your books on CreateSpace, both for the possibility of increased earnings, and for the chance to schedule a Goodreads Giveaway.

## Little-Known Publishing Alternatives

**_"The future of publishing_** **_is about having connections to readers and the knowledge of what those readers want."_**

Seth Godin

### Snippet

<http://thesnippetapp.com>

THE FOLKS OVER AT SNIPPET App are putting a new spin on publishing. They believe reading should be "quick, rich, and engaging", so to that end, they've re-imagined the whole reading experience by publishing media-rich books, both fiction and non-fiction, with no one chapter ever topping 1,000 words.

Currently in beta, writers can request an invite then expect to wait a bit before receiving an account. Mine took about a month. If you don't hear back within four weeks, I advise you to send them a note through their help link to speed things along.

I had several conversations with Matthew Gartland, Content Director, who walked me through the Snippet system.

In brief, authors (once given an account) log into the system and then begin developing their book. To optimize reader interactivity, authors can embed "discoverables" into their books: photos, videos, and audio, which readers can activate with a tap. Readers can also share discoverables and recommend Snippets to their social networks.

Snippet writers enjoy a 50/50 revenue split from every purchase. Snippet's 50% goes to supporting and growing the platform itself.

On the reader side, prices for Snippets range from $0.99 to $4.99, and are read through the (free) Snippet App, available in the App Store. The app is compatible with the iPhone 3GS, iPhone 4, 4S, 5, iPod Touch (3rd and 4th generations) and the iPad.

#### How Authors Can Use Snippet

**Increase Sales:** The most straightforward way to use Snippet is to create a book, add multimedia, then publish. Good news – you don't need to know any kind of coding and the formatting is done for you by the system.

**Marketing Tool:** For me, using Snippet as a marketing tool is one of the best uses of the platform. Think of it as a lead generator. Develop worthwhile content that serves as a breadcrumb to a larger whole like your online course, email newsletter, other books, products. In your Snippet, add a call-to-action page at the end that promotes the next breadcrumb. Links are encouraged; link to whatever you desire to help move your reader through your sales and marketing funnel.

As the Snippet folks say:

_"Although Snippet_ _writers are creating a wonderful diversity of stories, one common theme is the use of Snippet as a more personal introduction to the writer and his or her body of work. Because we encourage cross-promotion of a writer's other projects - whether they be books, online courses, blogs, or other - Snippet is a wonderful way to foster community and more intimate relationships."_

**Beta Book:** Use Snippet to test a book concept. If you're considering a lengthy book (fiction or non-fiction), publish four to six chapters (3,000 to 6,000 words) to gauge reader interest. Let the reader know what they're purchasing but including in your book description a statement like this:

_"This is the beginning of a book idea. I'm sharing this in its early stages because I want my readers to be involved in the process and to help this book come to life. I value your feedback and am excited to have you involved in shaping this book's potential. I hope you're excited too."_

Then, at various portions of your book include a way for readers to send along their opinions, such as sharing them with you via social media. Using a Snippet as a beta book gives authors an incredible opportunity to test ideas before launching into a full-blown 150,000 word undertaking.

Download the Snippet App from the Apple App store to see current offerings. You can also download The Snippet Snippet – a freebie book illustrating the features of a Snippet. And be sure to check out the Snippet blog for information on subscribing to the Snippet Podcast via iTunes.

### PRETTY BOOKS

Want to try your hand at publishing photo books? Head over to Blurb <http://blurb.com> and get started creating your masterpiece. It's easy to make a Blurb book – just download the free software or create online via Blurb's nifty utility. The video tutorials are well-done and easy-to-follow.

Once your book is printed you can sell it in the Blurb store. Pricing is via the Set Your Price program, allowing you to keep 100% of your markup.

You can also order copies of your book to sell from a website or social media platform.

You might wonder why we've included Blurb in this book. After all, it's designed to make it easy for Joe Blow to create a pretty book for a birthday or anniversary – surely not for serious authors!

Wrong.

Don't tell anyone . . . . but once you've created a Blurb book you can pay an additional $10 to convert it to eBook format. And guess what – you can then submit that eBook to Apple's iBookstore. If the book passes Apple's review process, you're in. A cool, somewhat sneaky way to get into the iBookstore!

Just a reminder though – if you're in the iBookstore via Blurb, Apple will take 30% and Blurb another 20%. However, you'll have your book in one of the most trafficked sites on the planet.

If coffee table types books are your thing (like they are Nancy's) Blurb could offer a perfect solution for you. If you have any experience creating books with a lot of images you know it can be problematic to keep the images from moving around a little or worse, having images that aren't sized just right to look beautiful on an e-reader. With Blurb, you're working in a drag and drop environment so you can preview each step of the way.

### Fiverr

Fiverr is the place where authors usually buy 'gigs', not sell them so it was a surprise to us when we discovered a friend of ours is doing very well on Fiverr.

Nick Loper, of the Side Hustle Nation blog, has written a book about Virtual Assistants. It now sells more copies on Fiverr than on Amazon. (He removed his book from KDP Select first).

As he says in his blog post, below, Fiverr isn't the place to sell fiction and won't work for everyone, but it may be worth a try for you.

<http://bit.ly/sellbooksonfiverr>

### Your Own Website

If your eBook is not enrolled in KDP Select, there's nothing to stop you having it available for sale on your own website. You can produce a PDF version and have it as a free download. If you want to charge, you can get clever with PayPal and have it as a downloadable link only to people who have paid via PayPal (the link will go in the automatic response that PayPal will send for you).

Getting even more clever, you could join E-Junkie. E-Junkie will give you a shopping cart and buy buttons to put on your website (or elsewhere, e.g. social media, ClickBank, etc.,). E-Junkie costs $5 per month for up to 10 'products' (books).

http://www.e-junkie.com

The disadvantage of using your own website to sell your books is that you possibly won't have a big enough following (yet!) to make a living just from selling books on your website. There's a lot to be said for having your books available everywhere though!

Your website is the ideal place to have a number of free eBooks available, if you have written any. A loss leader is a powerful thing. Giving a book away could snare you some new readers who may not otherwise have taken a chance on you.

**∞**

It's a good idea to keep an eye on any new platforms that develop in future. You never know which are going to bomb and which are going to soar. Getting in during the early days – as long as there is no cost or risk – can be fun and lucrative.

## Udemy: Turn Your Book Into A Course

**_"I cannot tell you how excited I was to see so many sales and students_** **_coming in when I released my first course."_**

Tara Roskell, Freelance Graphic Designer

UDEMY IS A RAPIDLY-GROWING online learning platform – possible the largest in the world. Unlike a Virtual Learning Environment such as Moodle or Blackboard, it is a staffed site that allows instructors to put their courses online.

The courses are video-based – don't panic, that doesn't mean you have to have a makeover! Many courses don't actually show the instructor, but rather are recordings of narrated PowerPoint/Keynote presentations.

The courses have to be created using a computer, video and audio, so there is a learning curve. It could be well worth it though. Udemy's own figures state that the top ten instructors in the year 2011-2012 (the latest year for which there are complete figures) earned a total of $1,654,480. The top individual earned $218,935 from her course, 'Learn to develop an iPhone or iPad app'.

Udemy has experienced 700% user growth in just the last 12 months (currently 1.5 million and rising) – and a massive 50% of students enroll in a course on their first day of visiting the site.

All very impressive but what does this mean for you? It means that you could possibly convert your book into a course.

Udemy's instructors come from a wide range of backgrounds, there are instructors and teachers, of course, but there are also designers, coders, programmers, economists, yoga teachers, app developers, photographers ... and Michelle.

### Who Can Produce A Course On Udemy?

Anyone with the equipment. For a basic course all you need is a computer, presentation software (e.g. PowerPoint, Keynote, etc.), a dynamic microphone (the mics that come with laptops generally aren't good enough), screencasting software (e.g. Screenflow or Camtasia) and a good Internet connection. That will enable you to produce a computer-based course, if you want to create video of yourself or someone else you will need to also have camera and lighting equipment.

### What Is The Cost?

There is no cost to join Udemy or create a course. Udemy takes commission from the fee that anyone who joins your course pays. They also do quite a lot to promote courses, including an affiliate scheme, special promotions, and a blog with helpful marketing advice for course creators.

If a new student joins your course and you brought them to Udemy, you get 100% of their course fees. It's a good incentive to get instructors marketing their own courses!

### How Much Can You Earn?

It is up to you how many courses you create, how long they are, and how in-depth they are.

If you pick a popular topic, produce a good, full course, and charge $49 for it, Udemy estimates that you could make $34,300 per year from it. That's assuming 1,000 students per year join.

While these figures aren't just plucked out of thin air, there are a lot of variables. Michelle has three shortish courses on Udemy and earns $3-4,000 per year from them (combined). People with courses costing $200 can earn much more. But you have to put an awful lot of work into a $200 course and you have to put the time into marketing it as well.

### Royalty Payments

Royalties are paid monthly, at the end of the month for the previous month's earnings. They pay through PayPal. You can check your payments by logging into Udemy and clicking the 'Teaching' link, which will show the current earnings of each of your courses. You can find out how that breaks down by clicking on the course, clicking 'Manage this course', then clicking 'Payment Report'.

There has been a huge change recently in the payment structure. They used to pay instructors 70% of the takings of each course (taking 30% for themselves). That has changed to instructors receiving 100% of takings if the student joining the course is completely new to Udemy and has been brought in by the instructor using a coupon link. If an existing Udemy student (who has enrolled on other courses before finding yours) joins your course, you now only receive 50% of the takings. Instructors also receive 50% of the takings if Udemy find new students for them.

Many instructors complained about this when the change happened but it seems to be working well. It has prompted instructors to use their own platforms to bring new people to Udemy, and it has given Udemy a bigger marketing budget to enable them to bring in new students themselves, find affiliates, and improve the site and support.

It was interesting to note that the Udemy high earners (many of whom are members of the Facebook Udemy Faculty Lounge) didn't tend to be the ones complaining about the changes. This is generally because they have their own platforms or are active on social media, so are bringing in new students themselves anyway.

One of Michelle's books (Goodreads for Authors) is also a course, and she includes a link in the book for readers to join the course at a much-reduced price (the course being a lot more expensive than the book). So she brings in new Udemy students that way, as well as through Facebook ads, website and social media posts.

### What Types Of Books Aren't Suitable For Converting Into Courses?

  * Short books - many non-fiction books _are_ suitable for converting into courses but only if they are long enough. Every Udemy course needs to be at least 60 minutes long.
  * Picture books, travel guides, art books.
  * Fiction – it would be very difficult to convert a novel into a course.

### Getting Started With Udemy

Either join a course or go to www.udemy.com and register. You can sign up either with Facebook or using your name and email. You will be signed in straightaway and presented with a screen full of delectable courses! There are a number of free courses and it is worth signing up to a few so you get a feel for the site, the navigation, and the content. Here are few that were free at the time of writing. If they aren't still available, there will be others – do a search for 'free' in the search box next to 'Discover' at the top left of the screen. Not every course that appears will be free, if they have used the word 'free' in their course description for some other reason, for example – e.g. How to create free websites. However, there are free ones so scroll through.

### Suggested Courses

The first thing to do before creating your own course is to join a few Udemy courses so you get a feel for the platform and for learning online.

The following courses were free at the time of going to print.

**Becoming A Writer:**

**_<http://bit.ly/becomingawriterudemy>_**

This is an excellent course, created by bestselling course author Cathy Presland, one of Michelle's course writing partners.

**Photography Course:**

**_<http://bit.ly/photoshoptoolsudemy>_**

And the one you will definitely want to enroll on if you decide to create a course for Udemy:

**_<http://bit.ly/howtocreateacourse>_**

It doesn't contain everything you will need to know but there is a Facebook group for that:

**_<https://www.facebook.com/groups/UdemyStudio/>_**

The Udemy Studio is a great resource. You can ask questions, discuss options with other new instructors, and get feedback from Udemy staff. The staff advise everyone to create one video lecture initially and post the link on the Studio group so they can check it out. This really is essential.

Michelle created a new course, thinking it would be okay because she knew the ropes from doing her course with Cathy. When she submitted it to Udemy they said the audio quality wasn't good enough and she had to re-record 33 lectures!

### Course Categories

These are the course categories, with examples of the types of courses included in them. If your book does – or could – fit into any of these categories and is long enough to convert into a 60-minute course (or longer) then you could convert it into a course.

The main categories are covered on the next few pages, with titles of some of the courses in those categories, to give you an idea of what's available.

**Technology**

  1. Become a web developer from scratch

  2. HTML5 beginners crash course

  3. Excel 2010 (very popular)

  4. Learn HTML5 programming from scratch

  5. Drupal 7 for beginners

  6. Java essential for Android

**  
**

**Business**

  * Publish your book on Kindle

  * Digital marketing management

  * Operations management

  * Advanced Excel training

  * Entrepreneurship

  * AdWords: Running a successful campaign

  * Blogger training

  * How to use Twitter to build authority

**Design**

  * Photoshop training

  * PSD to HTML

  * How to design a logo: beginners course

  * Infographic How To

  * Creating an engaging website with Twitter Bootstrap

  * Learn to design a letterhead

**  
**

**Arts & Photography**

  * The art of black & white photography

  * Easy DSLR digital photography course for beginners

  * Total training in commercial photography

  * Supercharge your photography website

  * Get your pohtos published - quickly, easily & profitably

  * Night photography unlocked - beginner's course

**  
**

**Health & Fitness**

  * Sleep hacking : have more energy, spend less time in bed

  * The 5 pillars of optimal health

  * The 21-day master weight loss program

  * Yoga for insomnia

  * The total hot body fitness workout

  * Learn how to save your life in 60 minutes

**  
**

**Lifestyle**

  * The secrets of body language

  * Advanced mind master: the science of getting rich

  * Discover your calling

  * Goal setting 101

  * Transform self doubt into confidence

  * Learn the pastry arts - 1 week mastery course

**Math & Science**

  * Become a pharmacy technician

  * Astronomy - state of the art

  * Beginning algebra

  * A journey through medicine: how to get into medical school

  * Trigonometry: trigonemetric functions 1

  * The ACT math test made easy

**  
**

**Education**

  * How to create a Udemy course

  * Mind maps & mind mapping

  * Accessibility features on the iPad

  * 'Deep Dive' screencast training: Camtasia for Mac v2

  * How to create an awesome online course

  * Technical writing & editing

**  
**

**Languages**

  * Spanish 1-4 beginning to advanced

  * Accent reduction made fast & easy

  * Japanese in context

  * Fun with Brazilian Portuguese

  * Essential Chinese for travelers

  * American accent training for IT professionals

**  
**

**Humanities**

  * Kick start your memoir

  * Novel writing workshop

  * Lectures on Greek history & culture

  * Poetry: What it is & how to understand it

  * Classics of American literature: T.S. Eliott

  * Frankenstein

**  
**

**Social** **Sciences**

  * The US Constitution: a biography

  * Ancient Greek religion

  * Brazil for beginners

  * Introductory Psychology

  * International Relations 101

  * How to write a thesis

**  
**

**Music**

  * Adventures in classical music

  * Jazz guitar: painless scale positions

  * Complete guitar system

  * Piano improvisation from day one

  * Play ukelele now

  * The piano revolution

**  
**

**Crafts & Hobbies**

  * Cake decorating for fun & profit

  * Woodworking course

  * Speakeasy cocktails

  * Kitchen knife skills

  * Brew your own beer with the Mr Beer kit

  * Learn how to juggle

**  
**

**Sports**

  * How to focus for gold

  * Training the athletic brain

  * The ultimate sports fundraising program

  * Skate-Pro

  * Seven secrets to hitting a baseball

  * How to watch an American football game

**  
**

**Games**

  * Anyone can learn to make a game

  * Beginning mobile game development

  * Game development crash course with Corona SD
  * Game development made easy
  * The casual gamer millionaire
  * Writing for the videogame industry

**  
**

**Other**

  * How to write an effective research paper

  * Foundations of success

  * How to be a human lie detector

  * How to: makeup basics

  * Getting started as a wedding & event planner

  * How to repay federal student loans

As you can see, there are courses on a really wide variety of things – and reading through the lists is like reading through Amazon's non-fiction lists!

### The Basics Of A Udemy Course

Udemy courses are video-based. That doesn't necessarily mean a video of the instructor teaching though. Plenty of tech-type courses are made up of almost entirely screencasts – that is the instructor doing things on the screen, which is recorded, with a narration on top. They will then add extras to the course, such as PDF downloads, worksheets, etc.

You _can_ have an all-singing and dancing course, using multiple cameras & microphones, backgrounds, and using up-to-the-minute expensive software.

Some courses do that. Not necessarily the most successful ones though. The course with the most students – currently – on Udemy is a Microsoft Excel course that is very simple. It has 14.4K students on it. Interesting.

That doesn't mean that producing a very high quality course would put you at a disadvantage, it just means that what the course is about is the most important thing.

You can produce a course using just:

  * A webcam or digital camcorder.
  * A dynamic microphone.
  * Presentation software such as PowerPoint or Keynote.
  * Software such as Screenflow (Mac, around $99), Camtasia (Windows, around $300, or Mac, around $99), or Screencast-O-Matic (free).

When you get more experienced and have some nice income from your early courses, you can add more equipment such as lighting and a digital camcorder. Often, a smartphone camera is just as good as a digital camcorder. Check out Wistia's learning center for advice on hardware and setup: <http://wistia.com/learning>

### How To Create A Course

There are four basic steps (with lots of mini steps to each) to having a successful course:

##### Research & Plan Your Course

If you have a successful Kindle book you don't need to do any research, you've already done it. Putting a book out there is great market research – if it has sold well then you know you have an audience willing to pay for that information.

If you don't have a book, use a keyword tool and Amazon to search  around the subject. Find out if there's a demand for it. If you have taught Tuvan Throat Singing you may not be sure if there's a big demand for it online, so a Google search would give you an idea if anyone is looking it up.

It turns out some people are (that may have something to do with it being mentioned on The Big Bang Theory!) but perhaps not many enough to justify spending a lot of time creating a course on it.

Let's have a look to see if there's anything on Amazon relating to it

There are books, DVDs, music, and MP3 downloads. Drilling down a bit more, we can see how popular the first DVD on it is:

Its best sellers rank is #140,042 - not bad! Another DVD, 'Genghis Blues', has an even better bestseller rank of, has a bestseller rank of #67,042. The Big Bang Theory seems to have a big effect on people's buying habits!

So you can see that there is a small but important potential market for your course. Ideally, though, you would have produced a book first, but you get the idea. Researching the potential demand before creating a course is vital because a course does take a while to put together, publish, and promote. Spending a lot of time on a course that may not sell much is an ineffective use of your time.

If you want to turn your book into a course, here's how you could do that with a very limited budget. All you really need to do is transfer the main points of each chapter or section into a presentation (for ease of understanding, we'll refer to this as a PowerPoint from now on, but it could be a Keynote, or a presentation using free software such as OpenOffice – which is actually very good).

Let's say we had written a book about spinning (one of Michelle's hobbies!), which had proved surprisingly popular. Teaching something physical is difficult via a book and if the book does prove popular, a course based upon it could be even more popular as it would be more visual.

Here's how we would go about turning that into a course.

  1. Create an Excel spreadsheet containing the chapter titles. These will be the sections of your course.

  2. Break down each chapter into points – these will be the videos that make up your course.

  3. Create a script for each chapter, based on your points. Don't worry about making this overly-long. It is better to have short videos, to keep people's attention.

  4. Video yourself or someone else explaining or demonstrating each point. You can also create a PowerPoint-type presentation and 'mash' the video and presentation together using Udemy's tools.

  5. Edit each video – taking out 'um's, background noise, errors.

  6. Upload each video to Udemy. Add a description (bear SEO in mind here – use words that Google could find that would lead people searching for that term to your course).

  7. Either save your presentation as a PDF or write notes/extra information for some or all of the videos, for students to download.

  8. Preview each video, then click the Publish button.

Udemy review each course before allowing it to go live on the marketplace. It usually takes less than a week.

### Michelle's Experience With Udemy

I (Michelle) was fortunate to know a bestselling Udemy instructor who is also an author, Cathy Presland. When I released my book, 'Goodreads for Authors', Cathy contacted me to say it would be a good one to turn into course.

Being without a home studio or access to a professional one, I thought I wouldn't be able to manage the technical side but, working with Cathy with just laptops and a dynamic mic, we produced a course that is producing an income equivalent to a book on Amazon that sells 10 copies a day. In other words, good money!

# SECTION TWO:

How To Promote Your Book Without It Taking Over Your Life Or Bankrupting You

## Marketing Is Not A Dirty Word

**_"Marketing is too important to be left  
to the marketing_** **_department."_**

David Packard

ONCE YOUR BOOK IS SELLING from one or more platforms, it's time to do some serious promotional activities.

Many authors loathe marketing. They either feel they aren't good at it, find it difficult/expensive/impossible, or would simply rather get on with writing and let the royalties come in as they may.

Often Indie authors complain that the marketing side is the only drawback of being independent and will sign a traditional publishing contract if offered one. Then they find out just how little marketing traditional publishing houses do for the majority of their authors.

Nancy was published traditionally before taking the Indie leap. She knows full well that even traditionally-published authors have to take responsibility for doing some of the marketing of their books themselves – if they want to make any money.

Now if you're going to have to do some marketing yourself for a 10% or 15% royalty with a traditional publisher why not do it all for the 35% or 70% royalty you can get as an Indie?

Marketing isn't difficult and it doesn't have to be expensive – although it can help to have a budget that you can invest in a bit of CPC advertising, as we'll see later. Marketing is about being in touch with your readership. It's about knowing who your potential readers are and coming up with ways to reach them.

It isn't about prostituting yourself, shouting 'Buy my book' on literary street corners. It isn't about spending days on end commenting on blogs and forums, posting things on social media, or wasting money on badly-placed advertising.

We both feel happily qualified to write this section:

  * Nancy really loves marketing – even more than writing sometimes! It's understandable really, as it is the marketing that brings the royalty money in, not the writing. You could be the next Hemingway, producing one witty, clever, captivating book after another but if you don't market them well only a handful of people will ever find them.

  * Michelle started her career in public relations, and then moved into advertising. She has worked with large budgets and seen first-hand how effective advertising can be – and also what a huge waste of money it can be. She uses Google, Facebook, and Goodreads ads for promoting her books, as well as public relations (old style and new).

The bottom line is that if you don't market your books, you aren't going to make as much money from your writing as you could. Marketing is essential – but it doesn't have to cost a lot.

## Track Your Marketing

**_"It is hard to check five email inboxes, three voice mail systems, or five blogs that you are tracking."_**

David Rose

TRACKING YOUR MARKETING DOESN'T HAVE to be difficult, if you have a few things in place. If you don't track it, you could be throwing money and time away by using ineffective marketing tactics.

There are two very basic ways of tracking that will make you feel like an Internet Marketer but could help bring in more royalties.

### Google Analytics

Google Analytics is a free service that gives you statistics about what is happening on your website. If you don't have a website, you really need one. Check out Nancy's book about Wordpress to see how easy and inexpensive it is.

<http://amzn.com/B00AEB5EHE>

Then link to Google Analytics. Analytics show you where you visitors are coming from. If all your website visitors are coming from the US but you are paying for advertising in Brazil, you'll know very quickly that the advertising isn't working.

Similarly, if you have sent a press release to news agencies and sites in a particular city, you can see the numbers of hits on your site increase from people in that area.

Analytics will also show you how engaged people are by the content of your site – i.e. how long they spend on each page. So you get feedback about how the site itself is performing.

Go to:

<http://www.google.com/analytics/>

to sign up for Google Analytics. If you aren't techie, there are good plugins to make linking your analytics account with your WordPress account really easy. Search for 'Google Analytics Dashboard' on WordPress.org.

### Bit.ly

Bit.ly is a gem. It's a totally free service that allows you to shorten long URLs and track when they have been clicked.

It's a great way to add URLs to books, web pages, social media posts, etc. You can pop over to Bit.ly to see how many people clicked on your link.

We used bit.ly to shorten a number of long links in this book. Don't be tempted to try to out-smart Amazon though. Amazon affiliate links (i.e. Amazon Associates ones) are not only barred from books, they are barred from being shortened. Amazon Affiliate links are best only used on websites, to stay safe.

Go to: <https://bitly.com> to sign up for an account.

**∞**

You don't need to check your analytics every day, but aim to schedule some time every week – or at a couple of times during a marketing campaign – to see how your site is doing and how many people are clicking on links that you are posting.

If any ads aren't performing as well as you hoped they would, pull them.

Your records of how your marketing has performed will be very useful when you are planning campaigns for future books.

## Maximize Social Media Without Wasting All Of Your Writing Time

**_"Social media is your opportunity to reach a massive number of people with transparency, honesty, and integrity."_**

Brian E. Boyd Sr., _Social Media for the Executive_

_  
_

IT'S NO SECRET. YOU'D BETTER be off promoting via social media if you want to build a loyal audience who can't wait for your next book to be released. But if you want to promote via all the social media sites you'll never have time to WRITE that next book. Fortunately, some brainy guys at a couple of sites solved the time problem. Here's how:

### IFTTT .com

IFTTT is a free site that makes it easy to automate pushing blog posts, images, tweets and more out into social media.

The magic of IFTTT (If This, Then That) lies in creating "recipes" based on most of the major social media (and blog) sites. Each recipe is comprised of two (or more) parts:

The IF part (If I post on Instagram) and the THEN part (then send my Instagram image to my Twitter account).

Recipes can be more complex if you want. For example, you may want each Instagram images to post to your WordPress site but in a specific category. Part of the IFTTT formula adds in the category.

Does this sound confusing? The good news is, most of the recipes you'll use have already been created by other users. When you click the BROWSE navigation link, search for whatever "channel" you want (i.e. all of the recipes that include Twitter) and you'll see a list of the related recipes.

Speaking of channels: They are simply the accounts that you have like Facebook, Tumblr, Dropbox, Foursquare – 68 in total. Click the icon for the channel you want to use, then click the Activate button.

I am currently using 10 recipes, including:

  * If I favor a YouTube video it will post to my WordPress blog

  * If I post on Instagram, repost on my Facebook Fan Page

  * If I create a blog post, repost it on my LinkedIn account
  * If I take a new iOS photo, send it to my Flickr account
  * If I post on Instagram, send to my WordPress blog*

*Most recipes that involve sending to your blog give you the option of choosing the category in which to post as well as the post status (publish as private, publish immediately, or save as a draft). I typically will save as a draft – that gives me the opportunity to go into the blog post and make comments or additional remarks.

### BUFFER.com

Buffer allows users to schedule posts at specific times during the day, which are then automatically sent to social media accounts. The free plan includes the ability to post to one each of your social media profiles (Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook, and App.net).

Buffer gives you the ability to set up a specific posting schedule, then denote which of your social networks you want the post to be sent to. First, connect your profiles and then for each profile, click the Schedule tab and choose the days of the week and times that your posts will go out. To add a post, click the "what do you want to share" box at the top of the page, and type or paste in your post. Then, click the avatars for your profiles to choose which profiles this post will go to. Once you add it to your Buffer, you will see it under the "Buffer" tab for each of those profiles.

Alternatively, you can add a Buffer browser extension for Chrome, Firefox and Safari, or if you're on a mobile device, you can post via email. Instructions can be found at:

<https://bufferapp.com/guides>

Buffer has a basic free plan as well as paid plans, starting at $10 a month; this includes up to 12 accounts, for example multiple Twitter accounts or Facebook Fan Pages.

### TWERIOD.com

An additional service you may want to explore, in conjunction with Buffer is Tweriod.com. This service analyzes your Twitter account and creates a report telling you the best times to schedule your Buffer tweets. Times are based on when the majority of your followers are online.

The free version of Tweriod will fetch a limited list of your followers from your Twitter account and analyze their last 200 tweets. Based on when they tweet every day, the reports are generated. Times listed are those of the time zone in which your Twitter account is listed.

The paid version has a few options, including a per-month charge (beginning at $3.99) and a $5.00 one-off report for up to 4,999 followers.

When running a one-off report for nhendrickson1 we learned that the majority of users are online between noon and 3 pm (Pacific) – but not every day. On Sunday, best time is 9 am, on Thursday, 7 am. Better yet, Tweriod can automatically sync your Buffer account to the best times for you to schedule your tweets.

**∞**

Social media needs to be part of your marketing efforts, and not just because it's free to do. It's very powerful and it's where your readers and potential readers are.

You don't have to be online all the time to make the most of social media though. Schedule your posts, use the automation services, check posts a few times per week.

### Which Sites Should I Be On?

The big 5 are:

  * Facebook
  * Twitter
  * LinkedIn
  * Pinterest
  * Google+

Ideally, have at least a presence on these even if you don't post to all of them regularly. Add some specialist book sites as well and you will have a good presence online and be easy to find.

#### Facebook

When you join Facebook you have a 'profile'. You can just use this or you can create a Facebook 'page'. A page is a good idea for authors – either for yourself and/or for your book or series of books.

Go to <https://www.facebook.com/pages> once you have signed in.

Click CREATE PAGE to get started. In categories, choose 'Artist, Band, or Public Figure > Author' if the page is for yourself, or 'Entertainment – Book' if it is for your book(s).

Check out Jon Loomer's site for information on the correct sizes to make graphics for Facebook pages:

<http://bit.ly/jonloomerfacebook>

Acting as your page, click like on a few pages that your readers may like. So if you write historical fiction, 'like' some pages about history reenactment groups, castles, museums, etc. If you write about health topics, 'like' some pages by holistic doctors, gyms, health-related magazines, etc.

Post a couple of times a week on your page, using Google Alerts for ideas. You can schedule your posts in advance to go out through the week using something like Buffer.

#### Twitter

Twitter uses short posts – 140 characters maximum – but you can add URLs that other users can click on, as well as photos.

You can follow people on Twitter whether or not they follow you back. Follow a few authors to see what they post about and learn from them.

You can synchronize your Facebook and Twitter accounts but many people who are on both platforms find it annoying to see the same things on each.

InkyGirl has written a fabulous post on how to use Twitter for authors. It's suitable for complete beginners and those who've been around for a while:

<http://bit.ly/inkygirltwitter>

#### LinkedIn

You hardly have to spend any time at all on LinkedIn in order to gain massive benefits. LinkedIn is the professionals' network and has been around for a while so has good clout with Google. If you have a profile on LinkedIn and Google your own name, you should see your LinkedIn link near the top of the results. That's just one reason to be on there though.

You can add your books – using the Publications feature – and these will also show up in search engine searches.

LinkedIn also gives us the opportunity to make connections. We have both had approaches for guest blogs via LinkedIn and Michelle was approached to conduct a teleseminar.

There are also groups which can be excellent for support and knowledge sharing.

Here's a good article on how to make the most of your LinkedIn presence:

<http://bit.ly/liforauthors>

#### Pinterest

Nancy wrote a book about Pinterest and is passionate about it! She was one of the early joiners of the site (it was invitation-only in the early days). It's an up and coming platform that is still very friendly and sociable.

There's a lovely little post about how authors can use Pinterest 'guilt-free' at AuthorMedia.

<http://bit.ly/pinterestguiltfree>

#### Google+

The highly respected site Copyblogger believes that Google+ is a great platform for authors.

Neither of us spend much time on there so we're not experts, but we each have a presence.

We have experimented with and joined in Google Hangouts. Hangouts started as video chat but have progressed into something that people use instead of webinar software. They have great potential if you want a way to chat with your readers real-time.

<http://bit.ly/7waysgoogleplus>

### Specialist Platforms For Authors

The biggest and best is Goodreads: <http://www.goodreads.com>. Be sure to have a presence there.

Don't forget the other two book cataloging sites as well:

  * Shelfari (<http://www.shelfari.com/>)
  * LibraryThing (<http://www.librarything.com/>)

Set up your presence and add your books. Then, if you want to, you can forget about them until you release your next book. Shelfari is an author's dream, because other people will add information for you. LibraryThing is good because you can give out pre publication copies of your books in return for reviews. Very useful!

### What To Post About

People often struggle with what to write about on their blog or social media posts. The best approach is to keep it simple and automate it as much as you can.

Write down a list of the themes for each of your books or planned books, as well as your own interests. Set up Google Alerts for each of these. Have the alerts come in once a week and, when they do, go through them and schedule posts about the ones that interest you.

For example, if you write historical fiction, set up alerts about the time periods in history that you are most interested in. Many of the bestselling historical authors blog and post about important dates in history, reenactments, upcoming exhibitions, etc.

If you write in the health niche, set up alerts about news items relating to the health topics that most interest you. You can simply repost the links that appear, or blog about them, expanding on the points raised in the article.

You don't need to blog more than once or twice per week. Try video blogging if you don't like writing your posts. People tend to respond better to video blogs.

Don't be afraid to talk about your life. Readers like to feel they are getting to know the authors they follow.

Do respond when people comment on your posts – even if it's just a quick "Thanks". You can make a note of any questions or comments that you get on your blog or social media posts. Then respond to all of them in a article or blog post that you syndicate across your different accounts.

Goodreads is one platform that you really should be on, both as a reader and an author. Be sure to have an author profile on there and put some books on your virtual shelves, to show what you enjoy reading. It's a very powerful site for authors and a great way to connect with potential readers.

### Networking On Social Media

You can find good groups for authors on Facebook, LinkedIn, and Google+. It is worth joining a few. There are so many opportunities to share knowledge and experience, get industry news, or just enjoy the experience of chatting with like-minded people.

Unlike regular networking, you can pop in and out of social media groups when it suits you and no-one minds if you don't dress up!

We are in several excellent Facebook groups, including:

  * <https://www.facebook.com/groups/357112331027292/> \- started by Pat Flynn of The Smart Passive Income blog, this group has grown to be something of a phenomenon. There are over 4,000 members from all walks of life. Some new authors, some established. All are willing to share help and advice, tips, and
  * <https://www.facebook.com/groups/198597020319359/> \- the 99c Kindle Promo group. In this group, interested members buy each other's books in order to boost sales, write reviews, and offer support. There is no commitment, you just buy books that interest you.

Some good LinkedIn groups include:

  * http://www.linkedin.com/groups?home=&gid=3855280&trk=anet_ug_hm \- Independently Published Author's Marketing Association.
  * <http://www.linkedin.com/groups/Marketing-on-Amazon-Books-Kindle-4424968?trk=my_groups-b-grp-v> – Marketing on Amazon.

Some Google+ groups that we love are:

  * <https://plus.google.com/communities/104010264927724735620> \- Author Marketing Club.
  * <https://plus.google.com/communities/117308378473812380442> \- The Writers Community.
  * <https://plus.google.com/communities/106134988944938026164> \- Writer's Discussion Group.

## World Literary Café

**_"Guest blogging is the author equivalent  
of compound interest."_**

Nancy Hendrickson

WRITING IS A SOLITARY PURSUIT. As Charles Bukowski, author of _Women_ , wrote: "Being alone never felt right. Sometimes it felt good, but it never felt right." However, a writer's landscape is often more littered with ideas than real people. That's why finding a virtual community of other writers is so important for those of us who love the craft.

One of those communities - World Literary Café – provides writers a forum for sharing ideas, works in progress, frustrations and, most importantly to this book, a place to promote your own writing. Here, authors promote each other - a marketing venue for mutual admiration, if you will.

When you first visit WLC, sign up for a free account and then go exploring. It's a large site and it may take you some time to navigate your way through all that's offered.

But for now, I want to concentrate on two of my favorite areas for book promotion:

  1. Tweet Teams

  2. 2. Author-Blogger Connection

### Tweet Teams

<http://www.worldliterarycafe.com/content/tweet-teams-1>

Tweet Teams allow authors to create a 140-character tweet that will then be tweeted by other people on the same team. Teams are comprised of 10 people, and on any given day there are anywhere from six to ten teams. You can join a team by following the links above.

All team members are required to tweet what's written by their nine teammates; the format for a tweet is specific and must include RT @twitterteammembername and a #WLCauthor tag. A typical tweet would look like this:

> _RT @nhendrickson1 Kick writer's block to the curb, free today only_ _http://bitly.xxxx_ _#WLCauthor_

In addition, you are required to tweet the WLC tweets for the day. These vary from a few to several, which means you'll be tweeting out nine tweets from your teammates as well as the WLC tweets.

While this may sound like a lot of work, it's really just a matter of cut and paste into your Twitter account, being sure to spread tweets out throughout the day.

Assuming each of your team members has 300-1000 followers, the tweet about your book has the potential of reaching several thousand new eyes.

##### **SUCCESS TIP**

###### _If you use a Tweet Team, remember that most people don't respond well to a "buy my book" tweet; instead, try using a snippet of a review, i.e. "best mystery since Agatha Christie"._

###### _Don't forget to add appropriate #hashtags. Think "engagement", not "sale". In looking at my Twitter_ _analytics, a recent Tweet Team tweet that got a lot of traction read:_

###### _RT @Constance_Will The Dreamwalker: "This plot is simply fantastic" http://buff.ly/18qeMBl #WLCAUTHOR #new #paranormal #fiction_

### Author-Blogger Connection

<http://www.worldliterarycafe.com/forum/167>

If you have a blog and want to do author interviews, book reviews, or get guest posts – or if you're an author who wants to have a book reviewed, be interviewed, or guest blog – this is the forum for you.

Here, forum members post requests for all of the above. Some requests will be for authors of specific genres, others for people building book sites who want to interview other authors or review their books. When doing an interview or guest post, you're in a win-win situation; you're helping another author build traffic to their blog and they're helping you build links back to your book or blog.

What's the value of hosting other authors or guest blogging? Some authors use this method as the primary means of driving traffic to their site. It's the author equivalent of compound interest; the more (guests and guest blogging) you do, the more you make (traffic and readership).

If you're an author with an organizational bent, you might want to use the Connection to build your own blog tour. A blog tour is a series of blogs that host you with an interview, a guest post or a review. Again, compound interest. If you can get 10 blogs to host you and each blog on the tour has a readership of 500 people, you have the potential of reaching 5,000 new readers.

While on the WLC site, be sure to also cruise through the **Authors Hosting Authors forum** :

<http://www.worldliterarycafe.com/forum/123>

And the **Cross Promotion Forum** :

<http://www.worldliterarycafe.com/forum/169>

You'll find posts much like those in the Author-Blogger Connection; the forums seem to be treated somewhat interchangeably – so give all of them a look.

#### WLC PAID PROMOTIONS

While most of the WLC services are free, one that isn't is the **Social Media Mania Book Buzz** :

<http://www.worldliterarycafe.com/content/social-media-mania-get-marketing-buzz-your-book>

For $45 a day you'll get (quoted from the site):

_We place your book on our blog with an excerpt, as well as a direct buy link to your Amazon_ _Kindle_ _page. This promotion includes a widespread social media_ _"buzz" through several WLC_ _accounts where we will place multiple tweets and post your book to our IndieKindle Facebook_ _wall. THERE'S MORE! We post your book on the WLC Facebook wall, too!! The blog post will be spread across our Triberr accounts and tweeted by many. Your book title will be spread across the Twitterverse, creating a social media buzz about your book_ .

You can also purchase a Featured Author Sponsorship that lands your book on the center of the WLC home page. This will cost you $25 a day and includes (quoted from the site):

_We feature six books per day, and the feature runs for 23 hours. This promotion will be promoted through three WLC_ _accounts through Twitter_ _, specifically mentioning your book title in at least two tweets from each account over the 23 hour period, as well as two tweets through the WLC IndieKindle program. THERE'S MORE! We will also post your book's link on the WLC Facebook_ _page and the IndieKindle Facebook page! As with all of our promotions, we drive heavy traffic to our homepage, allowing your book tremendous exposure._

WLC offers several other promotional opportunities. Follow the links under the AUTHOR > GET PROMOTED navigation link. One of the latest is a partnership with Author Marketing Club. For $20.00 you can promote a $0.99 book that's on a Friday promotion. On Friday, all of the books are promoted out to both sites as well as to their combined social media networks. For more information visit:

<http://worldliterarycafe.com/content/promote-your-99-cent-book-wlc-and-amc>

## BookGoodies

**_"It's part of the craft that you like to talk about your writing as much as you like writing."_**

Deborah Carney, BookGoodies podcast

MICHELLE CAME ACROSS BOOKGOODIES WHEN she was searching for suitable sites to promote her books. They were just one of the sites that she used, to submit details of her books' free days.

When she analyzed the data, she found that by far the largest percentage of clicks on the book's Amazon sales page were from BookGoodies links or tweets. (At that time, it was possible to insert a tracking image on Amazon sales pages – unfortunately that's no longer possible.)

BookGoodies is a well run site, owned by author, entrepreneur, and photographer Deborah Carney.

#### Bargain Books Submission

<http://bookgoodies.com/bargain-books/>

BookGoodies feature books that are $3 or less in this section. So ideal for KDP Select free days or if your book is $3 or less either as a special offer or all the time.

#### Free Kindle Books Submission

<http://bookgoodies.com/submit-your-free-kindle-days/>

Deborah Carney tells us that they will be adding a new perma free section soon and the Kindle free form will accept Smashwords free books too.

BookGoodies also produce a series of tips books which are excellent. Author interviews and 'Tell us about your book' entries are reviewed for inclusion in future tips books. So double and triple opportunities for free exposure.

#### Self Serve Interview

<http://bookgoodies.com/contact-us/author-self-serve-interview/>

This is a page where you answer questions about yourself, your inspiration, your writing process, etc., and can add your author bio and contact information. It is then processed and turned into your own 'interview' on the site, bringing in traffic to your website/blog, Amazon author page, social media profiles, etc.

The self serve interview is completely free – an amazing resource. Also free is:

#### Authors: Tell Us About Your Book

<http://bookgoodies.com/contact-us/authors-tell-us-about-your-book/>

This form asks for information about the book, its target audience, your inspiration for writing it, etc. You can also add the book's cover. The book's details are then added to the site, giving potential readers the opportunity to find it.

If you are looking to spend some of your marketing budget, you can have your book featured on either the BookGoodies home page or on a category page. Prices are:

  * 1 week home page feature - $45
  * 2 weeks home page feature - $65
  * 1 week category page - $25
  * 2 weeks category page - $40

There is also a good forum on the BookGoodies site. It's simple to navigate, friendly, and supportive:

<http://bookgoodies.com/bgconnect/forum.php>

BookGoodies also do an excellent podcast of very interesting interviews with authors, and encourage guest posting. Have a look at their existing guest posts and come up with something suitable yourself, then submit it:

<http://bookgoodies.com/submit-guest-post/>

BookGoodies want entertaining and original guest posts that are of interest to both readers and writers. Minimum word count is 300 words (no maximum). They don't allow posts that just promote books or services.

## BookBub

**_"Normally, young writers have all the time in the world and they don't always use it well."_**

Zadie Smith

BOOKBUB HAS ONE MILLION EMAIL subscribers, all interested in finding new books at a discounted price. Bookbub's subscribers are listed by genre, so if you opt-in to buy one of their packages, you'll know exactly how many people you can count on seeing your book.

The price of your promotion is based on the size of their genre list AND on your book's discounted pricing. There are several minimum requirements for acceptance into this program, all of which you'll find here:

<https://www.bookbub.com/advertise/requirements>

Basically, they only accept books that are either free or discounted by at least 50%. They check to make sure books are well formatted and full-length (no 9,000 word wonders). They don't accept the same book more frequently than once every six months, or the same author more than once every 30 days. Permanently free books aren't generally accepted.

Prices vary depending on genre, due to the number of BookBub subscribers for each genre. As a guide, at the time of this writing, some prices are:

  * Free Mystery book - $250. Going to more than 700,000 subscribers, with an average download of almost 19,000 books.

  * A general non-fiction book priced at between $1 and $2 - $360.

  * Historical Romance - $150. Going to more than 370,000 subscribers, with an average download of over 15,000 books.

  * Children's & Middle Grade - $50. Going to more than 90,000 subscribers, with an average download of 4,500.

You can find a list of all pricing here:

<https://www.bookbub.com/advertise/pricing>

### Nancy's Experience Of BookBub

The authors we know who have used BookBub have had tremendous success with this promotion and it's high on our lists to use in the near future.

I wouldn't use BookBub for a "loss leader" type of book (just my opinion) but would definitely purchase a plan for a book I feel will be a good seller for a long time.

<http://bookbub.com>

## More Promotional Opportunities

**_"Without promotion, something terrible happens ... nothing!"_**

P.T. Barnum

WE'VE USED THE SERVICES BELOW (both free and paid) and think each is worth considering when you want to step up your promotional game (and budget). Once your books start selling well you may be able to afford to actually have a marketing budget. It is well worth reinvesting some of your royalties in regular promotions.

**Author Marketing Club**

<http://authormarketingclub.com/members/submit-your-book/>

AMC is worth more than a quick stop to promote your book. It's massive and has a wealth of resources. Membership is free but you can upgrade to be a Premium member.

It's also a very influential site. Michelle's sales of her Goodreads book went through the roof when she was interviewed by Jim Kukral of AMC. Catch the replay here:

<http://authormarketingclub.com/members/goodreads/>

**  
**

**Digital Book Today**

<http://digitalbooktoday.com>

This offers many services (free and paid) for authors. Take the time to read through all of the offerings; some require that the book be on a free promo, others require a certain number of 4 star Amazon reviews.

**  
**

**Freebooksy**

<http://freebooksy.com>

For $50 you can get your book in front of 100,000 readers during days you're selling for zero. If you don't have any free promotional days, try...

**  
**

**BargainBooksy**

<http://bargainbooksy.com/> (sister site)

BargainBooksy will promote you to 70,000 readers for $50.

**  
**

**KindleNationDaily**

<http://kindlenationdaily.com>

KND has a number of paid services, starting at $99.

**  
**

**Rafflecopter**

<http://rafflecopter.com>

This is a contest service that sets up a free giveaway for you, with the code to embed on your blog or on Facebook. The service is free and definitely worth doing!

## YouTube

**_"YouTube is a phenomenal place to build a list  
that is your ideal client."_**

Montina 'SparkWisdom' Portis

YOUTUBE CALLS ITSELF A VIDEO-sharing website where users can upload, share, and view videos. The site is free to use and anyone can upload and/or watch any of the billions of videos that it hosts.

It was founded in 2005 by three people who had been early employees of PayPal. They said that they decided to create a site that enabled video sharing when they were unable to find the video online of Janet Jackson's top-slip accident that happened during the 2004 Super Bowl!

Google, recognizing the potential of YouTube, bought the site in 2006 for $1.65billion. Their ownership gives YouTube video creators a **_huge_** advantage because videos get ranked quickly by Google. That, if nothing else, makes making some YouTube videos to boost your book a really good idea. It will get ranked, and it will [quickly] lead people to your site and your books if you include a link in the video's description.

### Who Can Produce A Video On YouTube?

Anyone with the equipment. For a basic video you can simply talk into a web camera attached to your computer, or compile a MovieMaker video using photos and narration.

### What Is The Cost?

There is no cost either to join YouTube or to upload a video. You can produce a video at no cost using software that comes with most computers (e.g. MovieMaker or PowerPoint on a PC, Keynote or iMovie on a Mac).

Alternatives include:

  * Commission a Fiverr gig (see list below) or find a professional from another site such as PeoplePerHour or ODesk.

  * Buy dedicated software such as Camtasia (PC & Mac) or Screenflow (Mac).

  * Join yearly subscription software sites such as Sparkol or Animo (both for PC & Mac).

  * Commission a professional video.

### What Are The Benefits?

Numerous:

  * Promote your books using book trailers.
  * Build a list (by collecting subscribers).
  * Promote your books indirectly using how to or demonstration videos.
  * Establish yourself as an expert in your niche(s).
  * Promote your books using a narrator reading from your books (fiction).
  * Build your brand by sharing your expertise.
  * Earn money by allowing YouTube to run adverts on/around your videos.

For authors YouTube is best, initially, thought of as a way of building a list, promoting your books, and improving your SEO.

It is tempting to read the [rare] stories about YouTube sensations that have gone viral and think it's easy to join the gold rush. Well, actually it isn't difficult but it does take time and a certain amount of luck in order to catch the next wave of popularity at the right time. There are a few things you can do to improve your chances though.

YouTube videos are free to watch but you can join the YouTube partner advertising program. This isn't a quick path to riches, but – depending on your content – it can build to be a nice extra source of income after a few months.

Different figures are bandied around, some more believable than others. Nancy is new to YouTube but Michelle has been hanging around the site for a while – mostly for SEO purposes. The ability to get a video ranked by Google very quickly is wonderful for SEO. So if you, for example, create a new website for a new book, you can create a book trailer which also links to that site, and the video's quick ranking will help lift the new website's ranking. Each offers social proof for the other, as will the listing on Amazon's various country sites. All in all a great way to establish a presence quickly and inexpensively.

We hadn't explored the earning potential until recently. One of the figures is for an earning potential of around $1 per 1,000 hits. That's a lot of hits to make just a few bucks. However, YouTube experts point out that it is possible to get those sort of hits if you have quality, unique content about popular, profitable topics.

As authors, we may not have video-producing ambitions but we almost certainly do have book promoting ambitions. The ability to use YouTube to promote our books is incredible and if we are fortunate enough to be in a genre that is popular, there is the potential to make some extra money from YouTube itself.

Ray William Johnson is a YouTube celebrity. He produces weekly videos that attract millions of hits. The money comes in when viewers click on the ads that YouTube runs on his videos. YouTube share the advertising revenue with their 'partners'.

### The YouTube Partnership Scheme

There are some criteria for joining the partnership scheme:

  * Your channel needs to have a minimum of 1,000 subscribers.

  * You need to have built up at least 1,000 views on your [combined] videos.

  * Your channel needs to have had 10,000 views.

  * You must be producing videos on a regular basis.

### YouTube Terminology

  * Channel – Your brand on YouTube. You post your individual videos to your channel and people can choose to subscribe to your channel to receive notifications when you post new videos.

  * Partner Program – You need to join this to benefit from advertising sales on your videos.

  * Following – People who subscribe to your channel and watch your videos regularly. You can contact people who follow you, make announcements, etc.

### What Types Of Videos Work?

Videos can be made in a variety of different ways, using different types of software. Here are some of the most popular:

  * Talking head – a simple video of a person talking or demonstrating. Often these are very low (or no) budget, just using an inexpensive webcam (web camera attached to a computer) and filmed in a bedroom.

  * MovieMaker – MovieMaker is easy to use and free to download from Microsoft. It actually came with Windows XP and earlier editions of Windows. You simply put photographs onto a timeline and record yourself narrating. The software compiles them into a video. Many, many YouTube videos are made this way.

  * Animations - Hand-drawn animation videos – or 'doodle' videos - have been popular over the last year. Michelle has used Sparkol's 'VideoScribe' ( <http://www.sparkol.com>), which is fun and easy to learn.

The most popular parts of the YouTube site are the 'How To' videos. There are now YouTube celebrities with varied channels, everything from how to apply makeup to how to brew beer.

### Suggested Fiverr Gigs

If you don't want to create your own videos/book trailers, you can commission some from Fiverr.

Here are a few that we have either used ourselves or have been recommended to us:

  * 30 Second Book Trailer For Authors - <http://bit.ly/booktrailerfiverr>
  * Whiteboard Hand-Drawn Video - <http://bit.ly/handdrawnvideo>
  * Flash Animation - <http://bit.ly/flashanimationfiverr>
  * Newcast Presenter - <http://bit.ly/CNNstyle>

### Equipment Needed

Hardware:

  * A desktop or laptop.
  * A microphone (preferably a dynamic microphone – a built-in mic will do at a push).

Software:

  * MovieMaker.
  * PowerPoint or Keynote.
  * Video editing software (optional) such as Camtasia or Screenflow.

If you have an older PC you will probably find Windows MovieMaker is installed on it. All you have to do is import photos or other images and possibly some music, then lay the images out on a storyboard and add titles/words.

MovieMaker doesn't ship with newer PCs (Windows 7 onwards) but you can download it free of charge from Microsoft: <http://bit.ly/momaker>.

The new version looks different to the old one – so rejoice if you haven't used it before, you won't find it odd! – but it has more features, such as being able to use video from a web camera.

If you can't get the hang of MovieMaker, you might like to try PowerPoint 2010. PowerPoint is more familiar to many people.

### How To Make A Video Using PowerPoint 2010

Make a presentation in the normal way, adding slides containing photos/images and text.

You can make the text 'fly' in using custom animation.

It doesn't have to be anything fancy. When you're satisfied, click SLIDESHOW > RECORD NARRATION.

Then record the voiceover while your slideshow runs. It can be saved in PowePoint 2010 as a video file by clicking FILE > SAVE & SEND > CREATE A VIDEO.

### How To Upload To YouTube

Videos are easy to upload to YouTube. Sign in (using Google) and click UPLOAD near the top of the home page and follow the instructions.

The most important part of uploading your video is adding the description. This needs to:

  * Start with a **URL** – give them something to click on! You can send people to your website/blog, Goodreads author profile, Facebook page, Amazon book sales page, etc. The advantage of your website is that you can have a dedicated page for your book – or even that video - on there, with a sign-up form for people to enter their email address in order to receive something free.
  * Contain **keywords**. If you have written a book about, say, tennis, you may have recorded a video about how to find a good tennis coach. Go onto Google and type in 'tennis' and various combinations of other words with 'tennis', such as 'coach', 'training', 'learning'.  
Google offers suggestions based on what people have been searching for – so you know those combinations of words are popular. Use some of them – naturally – in your description.  
So from the examples below, use 'tennis learning tips', and perhaps 'learn to play tennis for kids'.

See example on next page:

> **DESCRIPTION** :
> 
> <http://bit.ly/tenniscoaching>
> 
> It's not easy to learn to play tennis without a coach. Lots of people ask for tennis tips when they are learning to play tennis but it is quicker and easier to learn – especially to learn to play tennis for kids – if you find a coach.
> 
> But how do you go about finding a good tennis coach? This video shows you what to look for in a tennis coach.
> 
> Click the link above to download my list of great tennis coaches.

### The Secret To Building A YouTube Audience

The number one tip from the professionals is to post **often**. Even the big guys on YouTube say that in their early days they had an audience of just a handful of people and that it took time and regular posting to build a good audience.

Many experts say that six months is the golden time period. If you have been on YouTube for six months, posting regularly, you will have built up a good stock of videos and been around long enough for people to find you, get to know you and subscribe to your channel.

### How Do You Use YouTube To Build A List?

When you upload a video you get the chance to add a description. This is a valuable piece of online real estate! Use it to include a link to your blog/website, where you have an opt-in form. Give something away to entice people to give you their email address and you will build a 'list' of email addresses. You can then email them with offers, news, requests for beta readers, etc.

## Sending Requests For Guest Posts  
& Reviews

"Where the Internet is about availability of information, blogging is about making information creation available to anyone."

George Siemens

#### Guest Posting Email Templates

WE HAVE OFTEN BEEN APPROACHED by publicists, asking for guest spots on our blogs for their authors. Sometimes authors themselves contact us. Such approaches are always welcome! It's free content for our blogs, cross-promotion, and great for SEO.

There aren't many authors who do this for themselves, though, and it's a pity because it is very effective. It's possibly fear that stops us asking – fear of rejection, of being cast aside as 'only' an Indie, of feeling like a fool for asking.

But what's the harm in asking? If a blog is particularly busy you just won't get a reply, that's not going to hurt.

The more requests you send out, the higher your chances of being accepted. If you get into the habit of sending two or three requests a week, as part of your writing routine, it should start paying dividends within a couple of months.

Book bloggers are powerful people with big readerships. Other authors also have dedicated followings. If you can get your author interview listed on a few of these, you're onto a winner.

Here are two templates you could use to approach website/blog owners.

**PUBLICIST APPROACH**

Don't be tempted to try subterfuge. A quick Google search will reveal if you are writing from a 'real' company. If, however, you have formed a publishing house (which will be listed alongside your book on Amazon), you could get someone to write from that. Get them to use an 'official' email account – e.g. tom@bandrumpublishers.com, not tommyboy@hotmail.com.

> I am the publicist for Chicago natural healing physician and author, *AUTHORNAME*, who has released a new book/novel called _*BOOKNAME*_ (ISBN/ASIN ******).
> 
> I am wondering if you would be willing to post an interview with *AUTHORNAME* for the readers at your _*BLOGNAME*_ blog.
> 
> A [short description of book], _*BOOKNAME,_ which is similar to *FAMOUS AUTHORNAME*. _*FAMOUS BOOK*,_ has [ **come up with some accolades – reached the top 10 on Amazon, appeared on the front page of the iBookstore, touched many lives, etc**.]
> 
> I have attached a press release, an author FAQ, an author photo, and a copy of the book cover art.
> 
> Please let me know if you would like to have *AUTHORNAME* appear on your blog as a guest (you can just use the FAQ as is, if you like), or if you would be interested in reviewing *BOOKNAME*.
> 
> All best, *PUBLICISTNAME*
> 
> PUBLICISTCOMPANY

**AUTHOR APPROACH - NOVEL**

Again, use an official email account that uses your website/blog name if possible. If not, it isn't a disaster to use a Hotmail/Gmail-type account as long as your name is sensible – e.g. jeangenieauthor@gmail.com.

> I am a [State or town]-based novelist who has released a new book called _*BOOKNAME*_ (ISBN/ASIN ******).
> 
> I am wondering if you would be willing to review _*BOOKNAME*_ or post an interview with me for the readers at your _*BLOGNAME*_ blog.
> 
> A [one-line description of book], _*BOOKNAME,_ which is similar to *FAMOUS AUTHOR's NAME & BOOK*. _* BOOKBANE*,_ has [ **come up with some accolades – reached the top 10 on Amazon, appeared on the front page of the iBookstore, touched many lives, etc**.]
> 
> I have attached a press release, an author FAQ, my author photo, and a copy of the book cover art.
> 
> Please let me know if you would be willing to have me appear on your blog as a guest (you can just use the FAQ as is, if you like), or if you would be interested in reviewing *BOOKNAME*. I would be happy to return the favour.
> 
> All best, *AUTHORNAME*
> 
> Website:

**AUTHOR APPROACH – NON-FICTION BOOK**

For this approach you need to stress your experience/qualifications. Lots of Kindle books in particular are being published by Internet Marketers who choose their genres based on the popularity of that genre, not their own experience in it.

> I am a [Job/Experience/Qualifications – e.g. chiropractor, architect, who has released a new book called _*BOOKNAME*_ (ISBN/ASIN ******).
> 
> I am wondering if you would be willing to review _*BOOKNAME*_ or post an interview with me for the readers at your _*BLOGNAME*_ blog.
> 
> My experience in [your industry] made me realize that this book was necessary. [Some statistics or facts about industry and why lots of people are interested in this topic].
> 
> *BOOKNAME* has already [ **come up with some accolades – reached the top 10 on Amazon, appeared on the front page of the iBookstore, touched many lives, etc**.]. I have appeared on several leading blogs already and am seeking more guest spots as the mutual benefits of guest blogging are so powerful.
> 
> I have attached a press release, an author FAQ, my author photo, and a copy of the book cover art.
> 
> Please let me know if you would be willing to have me appear on your blog as a guest (you can just use the FAQ as is, if you like), or if you would be interested in reviewing *BOOKNAME*. I would be happy to return the favour.
> 
> All best, *AUTHORNAME*
> 
> Website:

#### Review Request Email Template

Again, send it from an official email account if you can. When requesting reviews you are asking someone to read your book, so give them a good idea what it's about and it's genre. Do you research well for this as you are

> Dear [ **Use blog owner's name** ]
> 
> I have been reading your blog/site, which I discovered through the [ **e.g. Author Marketing Club, BookGoodies, etc**.], and I liked your [ **e.g. post about XYZ** ], as well as the [ **depth/clarity** ] of your reviews.
> 
> I have been writing [ **for X many years, since college, since doing a degree, etc.]** and have just released my latest book, *BOOKNAME*.
> 
> My background in [relevant background] gave me the inspiration/experience to write this book, which has been well received so far.
> 
> Here is the description I used on the Amazon sales page:
> 
> [AMAZON DESCRIPTION]
> 
> I would be delighted if you would agree to read and review my book. I could send you a gift copy for Kindle, a PDF, or other format.
> 
> I wish you much success with your own books [or site]. Please let me know if I can help you in any way.
> 
> Kind regards, *AUTHORNAME*

#### Author FAQ

Include some FAQs (and answers!) with your approaches for requests for guest spots and reviews. Here are some examples of the sorts of questions generally asked of authors:

  * How did you get started writing?
  * Are you a full-time writer?
  * What did you do before becoming an writer?
  * Is this your first book?
  * Are you going to write a sequel?
  * How many books have you published?
  * When is your next book coming out?
  * Where did you get the idea for the book from?
  * What research did you do for the book?
  * Are your characters based on real people?
  * Is [town in novel] a real place?
  * I want to be an author. Can you give me writing advice?
  * Is there an audio version of your book?
  * Are your books available as eBooks?
  * Who are your heroes?
  * Who are your favorite authors?
  * What books/films have influenced you?
  * What are you working on now?
  * How did you get your book published?

You get the idea. Answer a selection of these – and some more, specific to your book/genre – and it will be great fodder for bloggers and website owners. Don't forget to include a photo and author bio with your email requests as well. You will often find that they feature you without having to interview you but be prepared for a Skype chat if they do. (Skype doesn't have to mean video chat BTW!)

# SECTION THREE:

What To Do Before You Say "I've Tried Everything"!

#

## Name Recognition

**_"It is up to us to give ourselves recognition. If we wait for it to come from others, we feel resentful when it doesn't, and when it does, we may well reject it."_**

Spencer Tracy

### WHO ARE YOU?

WE COULDN'T WRITE A BOOK ABOUT GETTING MORE BOOK sales without adding a bit about being creative in promotions or achieving name-recognition. Which brings us to:

### INSTAGRAM

<http://instagram.com>

If you aren't much of a device user, you may not know about Instagram. In brief, Instagram is a free photo sharing application that allows users to take photos or videos, apply a filter, and share it on Instagram or a variety of other social networking services, including Facebook, Twitter, Foursquare, Tumblr, Flickr, and Posterous.

The Instagram app is compatible with any iPhone, iPad or iPod Touch running iOS 3.1.2 or above or any Android device running Android 2.2 or above. In an homage to both the Kodak Instamatic and Polaroid cameras, Instagram confines photos into a square. Using Instagram (or many of its associated apps) you can transform blah photos with fun filters and frames.

Why could this service be a boon to authors? As of the fall of 2013, Instagram topped 150 million users.

I [Nancy] came very late to Instagram and am just now getting a handle on how to use it best for book promotion. By the way, I'm over at <http://instagram.com/nhendrickson> I currently have 32 followers (not many) but am working on a new campaign to get my books out into the Instagram audience.

After studying the terrain, these are my thoughts and recommendations.

#### Instagram – It's A Snap!

Download the app and set up your account. You can also link to your other social media accounts (Facebook, Twitter, Foursquare, Tumblr, Flickr, Posterous). Don't neglect linking up as it'll save you time in getting these images out into your network. Also, when setting up your account, fill out your profile in full, upload a photo of your beautiful smiling face, and set your account as public.

Once signed up, using Instagram is as easy as snapping a photo or video (15 second limit) using the Instagram app or your on-board camera, then using the filters and frames to add a little oomph. By the way – you'll get better quality photos if you take the photo outside of Instagram because the app's options are limited.

(There are a lot of books and web articles on getting great shots – a topic we won't cover here.)

Once you're happy with the photo the next step is the one you need to give some thought to: This is where you caption the photo and use #hashtags (keywords) to let other users know what your photo is all about.

How can you use photos to build a book readership? Get creative! Let's face it, no one wants to see photo after photo of your book covers. I'm a great believer in giving viewers a behind-the-scenes look at what's it like being a fulltime writer. My images use the hashtag #writerslife and I've used it to depict

  * restaurants where I grab lunch
  * meeting with a client
  * coffee with a friend
  * books I'm reading
  * my flowers (bemoaning that my books don't grow as fast as my plants!)
  * mindmaps I've created for a project
  * middle-of-the-night sessions
  * days I'm sick of writing
  * my cat – honestly, how can you write without a cat!

In short – the Instagram pix chronicle of my real life. When captioning your photo don't be afraid to give the viewer some backstory – after all you ARE a writer!

Right now I'm gearing up to do a special promo for one of my books using Instagram. What am I going to do? I'm going to put the cover of the book on my iPad, Kindle Fire, and iPod, then take pictures of the device out in the world. For example, I recently shot a picture of the iPod (with book cover displayed) propped on a rock with the ocean behind. My goal is to be clever about the many places I can show off the book while keeping the background interesting and viewers wondering where else this book is going to travel.

I'm not above using a little Photoshop magic, i.e. putting the iPod into scenes of places I've traveled like Mesa Verde, Mission San Luis Rey, on board the ship Star of India - - you get the picture.

I'm launching this in the next little bit – sign up for my mailing list if you want to know the results of this case study. You'll find a sign-up box in the right column of my site:

<http://nancyhendrickson.com>

#### Instagram Tips

  1. Post throughout the day. Like Twitter, people are on Instagram at all times and in all times zones. If you shoot several photos, upload them at different times of the day.

  2. Post consistently. Don't post for two days and then stop for two months. The goal here is to build followers (see below).

  3. Tag your photos. You can use up to 30 hashtags but I wouldn't do more than two or three.

  4. If you like you can geo-tag your photos. This will tag the photo with the location at which they were taken. Why do this? Why not attract users who live in your area? You might get new followers.

  5. Add a link to your Instagram photo gallery on your blog. You can do this via an official Instagram badge. Once logged into your account online (not on your device) click on your username and a drop-down link will take you to the badges section. If you're having trouble finding the page it's <http://instagram.com/accounts/badges/>

  6. Use an Instagram widget in your blog sidebar. The one I use at <http://nancyhendrickson.com> is available (for free) at <http://snapwidget.com>

  7. Take time to search out other users in your field and follow them or tap their photos to LIKE them. Pick people you're truly interested in or those who share an interest (kite flying, perchance?). Then, start leaving comments on their pictures. It's a great way to get your name out and about in the Instagram-o-sphere. By far, #7 will take the most time as you'll want to find people you really want to connect with. Get started by hooking up with your real friends who use Instagram.
  8. Once you're up and running for a month or so, check your stats using Statigram <http://statigr.am> It's free and it will analyze your account. Explore the Promote navigation link to generate a Facebook tab, a Facebook cover image, a widget and more.

  9. You've probably heard of contests on Goodreads? Why not run one on Instagram. Take a picture, put the particulars in the caption box, hashtag it #contest, #prize, #freebook, or #competition. Make sure your captions tell everyone how to enter, the closing date, the hashtag they have to use and (of course) the cool prize you're giving away.

  10. Don't forget you can now take a 15 second video on Instagram. You can still use the default Instagram filters and you can select one frame to use as the cover image for your video. What can you shoot? How about your book cover and you telling one thing that readers will gain from buying your book? Or, highlight a special offer, a discount, an add-on?

Keep in mind that videos and images spur the most engagement on Facebook, giving you a great way to boost community interaction.

#### Instagram Hacks For Better Photos

If you're not much of a photographer, you may want to try some of the apps created to enhance Instagram pictures.

**Photoshake** (Apple and Android) – Shake your phone and the app will use random photos to make a collage. Add your own frame and captions.

**Instaplus** (Apple) Use this to zoom in, change brightness and contrast, rotate photos and filter. Quick sharing options.

**Over** (Apple) Add text and doodles

**Pudding** **Camera** (Android) Adds more options than you may want to use (unless you're a camera geek like me!)

### Flipboard.Com

Flipboard is a news aggregator, curating news from major media like USA Today, The Atlantic, BBC World, and the Chicago Tribune. In addition, Flipboard pulls in stories from a variety of cultural magazines and websites like Bon Appetit, Vanity Fair, BuzzFeed, Boing Boing, and Esquire.

Recently, Flipboard gave users the ability to curate topics of interest into a news magazine of their own, which can be seen and subscribed to (free) by other users. In mid-2013, Flipboard rolled out an online version of subscriber-created news magazines, viewable via a browser.

My creation is Digital #Writer Magazine. Every morning I spend about 15 minutes going through websites and blogs about writing and publishing, "flipping" them into my Flipboard magazine via a Flipit Bookmark Bar button or through my Flipboard app on the iPad.

What's the point of creating a Flipboard magazine? Your name is on the masthead and you can write a brief bio about yourself. In other words – increased visibility for free.

### PAPER.LI

Paper.li is another news aggregator that allows users to create a daily or weekly e-newspaper. From the site:

_"The Paper.li_ _platform gives you access to an ever-expanding universe of articles, blog posts, and rich media content. Paper.li automatically processes more than 250 million social media_ _posts per day, extracting & analyzing over 25 million articles. Only Paper.li lets you tap into this powerful media flow to find exactly what you need, and publish it easily on your own online newspaper."_

How it works: Once you create a (free) paper, add any combination of content sources to create the news. Sources can be from your own RSS feed, your Twitter feed, based on keywords or hashtags, or virtually any feed from Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, and Google +. Content can also be added via a Book Marklet

Once the paper is created you can customize it to include topic sections, language, custom color and font scheme, background image, frequency and update times for the paper to be published. You can even promote the paper via daily email digests, news widgets for your site, or a Tweet.

You can even create an 'editor's note' that appears on the top right-side of each issue. Use the note to make a personal statement as well as link to your site or book.

A pro version is available for $9 a month, allowing users to add logo and branding, remove all ads, export the paper via RSS, and claim a personalized domain name.

Like Flipboard, Paper.li provides an opportunity to get your name out to potential readers and book purchasers.

**SUCCESS TIP**

###### _If you have a website, consider branding your news magazine or newspaper so that readers will recognize that they are published by you._

## Advertising

**_"Too much money means that you'll abdicate marketing_** **_to 'professionals' and do stupid things like 10-city tours and  
buying ads in print publications."_**

Guy Kawasaki

[MICHELLE] WHEN I WORKED IN advertising, I handled the account of a large electricity company. They had a big budget and were able to afford print ads in national newspapers, radio & television advertising (this was pre-Internet), which I placed.

So I knew how much they were spending on their advertising - and how pointless it was. That's because I was also a customer of that company and was aware that their customer service department and communications were very poor. They were losing customers and thought that the answer was to do more advertising.

They would have been much more successful if they had simply asked their ex-customers why they had left, then done something about their customer service staff.

So I have mixed feelings about advertising, as a result of that experience – especially brand advertising. However, I now have experience of advertising my books and I'm REALLY in favor of that! It's important to be aware of what and why we are advertising though.

Let's have a look at the different types of advertising, and when and how they can be used.

  * **Brand** **Advertising** – raising awareness. Think of the Orange cinema ads. In the past these would not have had a call-to-action and many big corporates still don't bother.
  * **Product Advertising** – promoting a particular product. Think of the iPad adverts. Very focused on the product, its benefits, and showing how people use it. This is what we need to use to advertise our books.

Big companies with big advertising budgets can afford to throw money at brand advertising to raise the profile of the brand name. Little publishers and Indie authors can't – and probably shouldn't. As little author brands we don't need brand advertising until we have a big backlist or series. Product advertising – of a book – is much more cost effective.

But it is a bit pointless to just advertise without including a call-to-action. It's the best way of getting value for money because:

  * By giving people an opportunity to take an action (e.g. Enter your email address), you are actually testing your ads. If very few people take that action, you know your ad isn't performing well, so can change it.
  * If you do it well, you will be building a 'list'. A list is a very powerful thing. It is what you build up if you have something on a website that invites people to enter their email address – often in return for something free such as a downloadable eBook or report. Behind the scenes, that email address is being stored in a database (or list) so that you can use it later, often when sending newsletters, offers, or other e-communications. I invite people on my lists to be beta readers for my new books.

I think it's a good thing that we are much more cost-aware now. It has made us want our advertising to work harder – more bang for our bucks. If we only place adverts that direct people to our own websites or Facebook pages, we will be able to find out how many people are clicking on those adverts and, hopefully, get hold of their email address so we can contact them at a later date.

There may be times you want to place an advert to send people directly to your Amazon (or other book seller) book sales page – perhaps when your book is free or on offer. That's fine occasionally but the trouble with that is that you don't have any way of finding out how your advert is performing and no way of making contact with anyone who clicked on your advert. Amazon don't share information with us to tell us how many people visit your book's page and don't buy. You can tell how many are buying from your sales reports, of course.

We'll look first at how to build a list, then at some great places to advertise your books.

### Building A List

You may think building a list is hard but it really isn't. It is one of those things that we tend to put off doing but getting the technicalities in place doesn't take long and the benefits last for years.

You need just two things:

  1. A website (or blog) or Facebook app page.
  2. An account with a company such as MailChimp (free) or Aweber, iContact, or ConstantContact (paid).

You can make it as simple or as complicated as you want. At the most simple, you simply create a 'web form' in something like MailChimp and copy the code that they give you onto your website.

### Creating An Autoresponder Series

If you use a professional email marketing service, you can either send emails out when you get round to it - e.g. in the form of a newsletter - or you can set up a sequence of emails to go out automatically. This is called an 'autoresponder' series.

The beauty of autoresponders is that the series is triggered whenever someone joins your list. The first email will go out as soon as they join, and the rest of the series will go out at the time spans you have set. This enables you to sit back and let the software do all the work!

The only problem with an autoresponder series, for most authors, is that they suddenly forget how to write! Trying to come up with ideas for what to put in an autoresponder series is quite a challenge for many people (us included!).

There are a couple of things to remember here:

  1. You don't have to use an autoresponder series.

  2. You don't have to write prize-winning emails if you do choose to use one.

There is information available online about how to write an email autoresponder series from an Internet Marketing point of view – that is how to write emails that will encourage people to buy things or join paid programs. Here are a good one that we found helpful:

<http://blog.crazyegg.com/2013/04/11/perfect-autoresponder>

We also found the free Copyblogger email marketing book to be amazingly useful. You can get it by joining Copyblogger.com.

Here are our ideas for things to put in an email autoresponder series:

  * Initial email – a quick email saying thanks for joining your list, promising not to spam them, and offering good value. You can do that by saying you use your list to ask for early reviewers (point out that they will get a free review copy before publication – people like that), and let your readers know if Amazon or other sellers ever have your books on offer – this is popular, many people sign up to email lists simply to receive offers. Also include a line asking your readers to 'white list' you so you don't go into their spam folder.
  * Share something – people like to get to know their authors, share a personal photo or story, perhaps a short bio of how you came to be an author, your background, your influences. Include something useful as well, perhaps a link to something you found useful such as a YouTube video/playlist or a podcast. 
  * Testimonials – share something that touched you in a review, saying how much you appreciate readers' feedback.
  * Thanks – thank your readers for their time and feedbac. Encourage them to get in touch. They can provide free, targeted, valuable market research.
  * Offer background information about your book. If it is a novel, you can even include an extra chapter that you didn't add to the book. If it is non-fiction, you can include extra advice, links to sites that inspire you, details of courses in your subject area.
  * Within your series, you can include a 'sales' type email but no fewer than every 3 or 4 'value' emails where you are offering information, advice, or personal sharing. You could include links to books (your own and other people's), courses, or products related to your book/niche. Building on this idea, you could have 3 initial emails: #1 intro and thanks; #2 a bit about you; #3 a newsy one about your niche; #4 a salesy one – this will be sharing some information from your book and will include a link where they can buy it. Alternatively, send them to a page on your website where you share something from your book. On that page you will have put all the links where people can buy your book (assuming you have it on multiple platforms).

### Creating A Squeeze Page

You can make it more complicated – and better performing – by having a page on your website dedicated to your book (known as a squeeze page).

The best part about this is that you can find Fiverr gigs dedicated both to creating landing pages and to creating web forms on MailChimp or Aweber.

Here are some Fiverr giggers. Unfortunately we haven't tried these ourselves as we both enjoy the techie side of things!:

  * Fiverr Squeeze page 1 - <http://bit.ly/squeezepagefiverr>
  * Fiverr Squeeze page 2 - <http://bit.ly/squeezepagefiverr2>
  * Fiverr Squeeze page 3 - <http://bit.ly/squeezepagefiverr3>

So your squeeze page would be a sales page for your book on Amazon (or other sales platform). If you are a member of Amazon Associates you can make the link to buy your book an affiliate link. All you have to do is join Amazon Associates and add your book by going to its sales page and clicking LINK TO THIS PAGE in the toolbar that Associates adds to your account.

Here's the link to find out more about Amazon Associates.

<http://services.amazon.co.uk/services/product-ads/how-it-works.html/?ld=SEUKPADSADGogBRamazon_associates>

It is well worth joining because you can earn a little extra every time someone purchases your book from one of your links. You can also link to other authors' books as well – ideal if you do author interviews or reviews on your site.

And here's a screenshot showing how to get the code to place an associates link on your website:

Click LINK TO THIS PAGE at the top left of the navigation bar on the Amazon page. That will bring up the 'Customize and Get HTML' box. You can decide whether you want to show just the text, just the image, or the image and text, as well as altering the colors.

Finally, click the HIGHLIGHT HTML button and COPY the code. That can be sent to your Fiverr person or pasted onto your website.

###### **QUICK NOTE ABOUT AMAZON ASSOCIATES**

###### _You can't include any affiliate_ _links_ _to Amazon_ _products within your Kindle_ _books._

###### _You can, however, include affiliate_ _links_ _to products that aren't on Amazon_ _._

_  
_

You can use that page on your website, with your affiliate link to your book, in many ways:

  * Create an advert on a book promotion site such as BookBub and link to that page. It's a good idea to install (or get your designer to install) some sort of analytics – such as Google Analytics – to your website. You can see where traffic is coming from and how much is coming from any adverts you place.

  * Tweet it and add it to your Twitter profile.

  * Add it to your Facebook profile and use it in any Facebook groups you are in that allow authors to post links to their books. Many don't allow posting on the page itself but have a document containing links to members' books.
  * Link to it from your LinkedIn profile and add it to your LinkedIn status.

  * Add it to your email signature.

But none of that builds your list. You also need to include your web form (from MailChimp, Aweber, etc.,) so people need to give you're their email address.

Here are some suggestions that you could use to entice people to sign up with you:

  * Fiction books – extended character profiles and backstories; free bonus or deleted chapter; 'Behind the scenes', a PDF talking about where you got your ideas for the story, locations in the book (include photos if you have them); your writing process; free short story.
  * Non-fiction books – worksheets or spreadsheets related to the book; a free bonus chapter; Resources list – links to relevant websites not mentioned in your book, lists of suppliers, etc.
  * Newsletter – your Paper.li newspaper is ideal.
  * Beta readers list – it is perfectly acceptable to recruit beta readers from your website. Someone who has enjoyed one of your books may be delighted to join your list of beta readers, who get first glance at your newest releases and report back any typos that they spot.

You can probably come up with more ideas yourself but these are a start. It doesn't have to be complicated and there are plenty of Fiverr people to help.

### Great Places To Advertise Your Books

Advertising tends to be categorized as either print (leaflets, business cards, advertisements in newspapers/magazines) or online (adverts on websites, or in search engine results).

Print advertising is expensive and a bit hit and miss. I'm not a fan. One exception is a business card. They are still worth having, especially if you go to conferences and workshops. Business cards can include the cover of your latest book, some contact information, a link to your book's sales page (or website squeeze page with affiliate link).

They are also nice to give out with physical copies of your book, as bookmarks.

The Writers Relief blog has some great ideas for taking advantage of opportunities with business cards:

<http://www.writersrelief.com/blog/2012/06/writer-author-business-card-tip/>

But the best opportunities for us are in the world of online advertising.

#### Online Advertising Options

  * General – Google, Facebook, Goodreads, etc.
  * Book specific – BookBub, BookGoodies, etc. (mentioned earlier in this book).

Let's look at the opportunities and advisability of general online advertising in more detail.

##### Google

<https://adwords.google.com>

_(Replace .com with your country code)_

To advertise on Google you need to sign up with Google AdWords. It can take a little time to understand AdWords – they have a lot of options for categorizing and analyzing the performance of ads.

I don't think Google is the best place to advertise for the average Indie author. Why? Because you compete with other advertisers for position. If you have lots of money that's fine but if not it isn't ideal.

However, if you are fortunate to get an AdWords coupon through the post or email, then that's a great opportunity to try it out. It could turn out to be ideal for your book.

I got a $75 coupon through the mail after signing up with AdWords. I added $25 to it and turned it into a $100 campaign. I definitely did get book sales from it but not as many as I do from advertising on other sites.

Nice to have a try if you get a free coupon though.

GOOGLE AD TIP

###### _Try to get hold of a free coupon:_

###### _Sign up for AdWords_ _and wait or call their helpline and ask for someone to help you – they will often offer a coupon._

###### _  
_

##### Facebook

www.facebook.com/ads

I use Facebook ads all the time. The best thing about them is how targetable they are. You decide who gets to see your ad, choosing from location, age, gender, interests, etc.

You want to narrow your target audience down as much as possible, making it very specific. Why? Because the chances of someone else competing for that same audience are quite slim, so you pay less 'cost per click' (CPC = cost per click, i.e. less for every person who clicks on your ad).

Nancy hadn't used Facebook Ads before, so I wrote a quick document showing her how. You can download it yourself at the link below. Note that this is an example of list building! We'll get your email address in return for sending you the free document. Don't worry, we don't spam, but we may send you an email when we're launching new books to see if you'd like to be a beta reader or reviewer.

<http://bit.ly/facebookads>

FACEBOOK AD TIP

###### _It is cheaper to send people to a page on Facebook rather than sending them to an Amazon_ _page or your website._

###### _So create a post on a Facebook page (either for yourself as author, or for your book(s)) with a link to a sales page and send people to that post from the ad._

###### _  
_

##### Goodreads

<https://www.goodreads.com/advertisers/ad_home>

If you aren't yet on Goodreads you are in for a nice surprise. Goodreads is a site for book lovers. Now owned by Amazon, it is a valuable place for authors to have a presence. One of its most important features is its reviews are syndicated to multiple outlets. Goodreads members are passionate people and if they like your book they will promote it to others by it appearing on their news feed, on their virtual book shelves, voting for it on lists, reviewing it, etc.

Goodreads has a 'self-serve' advertising service, which is very handy. It is also targetable and, unusually, you can even target people by selecting their favorite authors. So if you write in the style of Tom Clancy, you can make your ad appear to readers who read Tom Clancy books. Very useful!

**  
**

GOODREADS AD TIP

###### _One of the best ways to take advantage of Goodreads_ _ads, while keeping the cost low, is to use them to promote a Goodreads Giveaway._

###### _This is where you offer a minimum of one paperback as a prize. You have to agree to send it directly to the winner(s), so you can state which countries you are prepared to post to. Most winners are from the US._

###### _Each Giveaway attracts an average of 725 entries. If you back that up with an ad, you can increase the entries to over 1,000, easily. Giveaways_ _are a great way to increase exposure for your book and you can run several per year._

###### _  
_

##### What To Put In Adverts

People are motivated by different things but one thing is common to all – emotion. If you can get someone's emotion with an advert, they are more likely to click on it.

That emotion could be positive – humor, cuteness, financial gain; or it could be negative – fear, anger, despair.

If you can write your ad to show that your book meets a need you are onto a winner. That need could be financial, entertainment, escapism, improved health, etc. Whatever it is, tap into it and try a couple of different ads to see which work best.

An Internet search for help on what to put in adverts brings up some excellent results:

  * What Motivates - <http://bit.ly/whatmotivatesbing>
  * Hubspot - <http://bit.ly/fbadsthatwork>

### Summary

  * Advertising should be one of the arrows in your marketing quiver.
  * Think about emotions when creating your ads. Try to phrase it so that your book is meeting a need.
  * You can advertise on Facebook and Goodreads from as little as $1 per day, and run your campaign for just a few days.

Please don't make being short on money an excuse for not advertising. Fear is what keeps us from advertising, not lack of money. We are in control of our marketing budgets and there's no need to worry about racking up massive advertising bills if you specify a limit – either a lifetime budget, or a certain number of days limit.

Michelle started her book ads at just $1 a day for a week, a couple of times a month. She started increasing the daily budget when she noticed the clear correlation between advertising and her book sales. It's a no brainer!

## Write More

**_"Since you already have some readers, and your audience is growing, and you have some tried and tested marketing tactics, then you're in great shape to launch that second book better than you launched the first one."_**

Cathy Presland, The Big Book Project

THERE ARE JUST THREE ALMOST sure-fire ways of selling more books. The first we covered in Section One – to get your books on more platforms. The second we covered in Section Two – to promote your book.

The third is simply to write more books. Does that sound too simple? It did to us, but it was demonstrated every time we released a new book. Sales of existing books rose. Author Emily Walker blogged about this phenomenon:

<http://bit.ly/emilywalker>

Other authors report this as well. One reason is that you have built up a following, another is that Amazon will often bundle your earlier books and/or show them in the 'Other readers bought' section on your book's sales page.

If you have a book that is selling well, it is worth writing another and making it into a series. If it's fiction and you don't want to develop your main characters any further, you could develop back story, or bring minor characters to prominence. For non-fiction it is a little easier – and quicker – to develop a series.

It's also a good idea to work with your cover designer to keep to a theme, so you have the book series branding across your range. Follow it up on your website too.

It can be difficult for new authors to know what to write next, though, if their existing solitary book is not selling. That's where research comes in. We know that book buying trends come and go. We've been through the vampires, werewolves, and misery lit. What's next? You can't tell what's coming but you can tell what's popular now and make an educated guess at how that might trend in future.

### Researching Trends

#### Google Trends

<http://www.google.co.uk/trends/>

Google Trends shows the top searches performed by people using Google in recent days. You can search by country and for the latest searches or the top ones over the last 30 days.

Current US searches shows 'Banksy' (the graffiti artist) is tied for number one with 'The Walking Dead' (the zombie TV show). Now might be a good time to write about a graffiti artist zombie!

Searches tend to follow news stories, which come and go, obviously, but Trends is interesting to keep an eye on for up and coming new crazes as they start to take hold.

'The Walking Dead', for example, has just premiered a new series, which is why it's trending. So it's important to watch Trends for a while to take note of ones that are sticking around.

#### Amazon Best Seller Rankings

<http://www.amazon.co.uk/Best-Sellers-Books/zgbs/books>

Check out the bestsellers in the categories you are interested in on Amazon. A glance through the Top 100 can tell you a lot about a category. You can see if it's only an arena for celebrities, or only for books from big, traditional publishers.

See how well a book is selling by having a look at the book's ranking. To find that, click on the book's page and scroll down to the 'Product Details' section:

You can see its 'Amazon Best Sellers Rank'. Any book with a rank of #20,000 or lower number is selling very well. Most experts advise not writing in a category where the top selling book has a rank with a number higher than 20,000. Bear in mind that the rankings change frequently, so if you are researching do it over a few days to track how it is changing.

**∞**

So write more, but write smart – know that there's a market for your book before you start on it.

Another way to write more is to collaborate with other authors. Half the money, yes, but half the work too! And double the exposure if you both promote and have a subscriber base already. It's a great way to get a book to the marketplace more quickly, as you're both working on it.

We can vouch for the fact that it's more fun too. Having someone to bounce ideas off, commiserate when you haven't written as many words as you hoped, laugh when you got muddled, etc., really helps the creative process.

Writing more doesn't have to mean working harder, just working smarter.

## Four Reasons Your Book May Not Be Selling

**_"It's a darn poor mind that can think of  only one way to spell a word."_**

Andrew Jackson

WE BOTH HELP OTHER AUTHORS and see books of varying standards in terms of English, spelling/grammar, content, and tone. If your book isn't selling, don't assume that the content is to blame, it could simply be that it needs a professional tune-up.

This is hard news for authors to take, we understand. Mistakes can be found in any book – traditionally published or Indie – and some will probably slip through in this one.

There's a difference between a couple of typos and an unreadable book though. Go through some reviews on Amazon or Goodreads and you'll see plenty of examples of readers giving up on books, for various reasons.

Let's have a look at the reasons why books are rejected by readers.

### English Is A Difficult Language To Learn

**_"I cannot write in English because of the treacherous spelling."_**

Albert Einstein

Sadly, many potentially amazing authors aren't selling simply because English isn't their mother tongue. We are both native English speakers but we are told by friends that they found English more difficult to learn than oriental languages, Russian, or Hebrew.

As Amazon is the biggest book retailer in the world and most books in Amazon are in English, you have a battle if English isn't your first language.

You are in good company if even the celebrated genius Albert Einstein struggled with English!

Amazon and Goodreads reviewers often comment on the fact that it is clear that the author's native language is not English. They really don't like it – which is very unfair but a commercial fact that we need to pay attention to.

The solution is to find native English proof-readers, beta readers, and definitely an English editor. That doesn't mean – necessarily – a British editor. In fact, an American editor would be better if you want to sell books in the US.

It is going to cost, there's no way around that. It will cost you a lot more in lost sales if you don't do it though. It could also affect your reputation long-term. It's best to stick at what you're good at – the story-telling or the non-fiction writing – and pay others to do the things that aren't your strong points.

### Poor Spelling & Grammar

**_"A synonym is a word you use when you  can't spell the word you first thought of."_**

Burt Bacharach

If you don't know the difference between there, their, and they're you aren't alone. Lots of authors struggle with spelling but most of them have eagled-eyed editors and proof-readers to weed out the howlers.

There are some glorious examples of authors who struggled with spelling, to cheer us up when we get lists of our own errors:

· Jane Austen wrote a book she called 'Love and Freindship' (think of the adage: "i before e except after c").

· Ernest Hemingway also struggled with spelling. When mistakes were pointed out to him by an editor, he retorted: "Well, that's what you're hired to correct!"

· One of Hemingway's friends, the author F. Scott Fitzgerald, wrote to him as 'Earnest Hemminway'.

· The poet John Keats misspelled purple as 'purplue' in a letter to his lover.

· W.B. Yeats, winner of the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1923, is another famous author who had his own ways of spelling.

There are lots of reasons that people have trouble with spelling. Sometimes it's due to a learning problem. Agatha Christie was dyslexic and struggled with spelling, as does Fannie Flagg (author of Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Café). Flagg was discouraged from writing, we can't help wondering how many other budding authors have been put off writing by over-critical teachers.

Spelling and grammar do matter, though, even in our text-speaking age. Take this quote from Chris Marx on the WritersBeat blog:

**_"I have the inability to take any person seriously that cannot spell, and Facebook has made me lose a lot of respect for friends."_**

The more time you spend online, the more the chances are that your ability to spell correctly will be affected. Microsoft spell checker can't be trusted either – nor can its grammar checker.

It's a good idea to get some style books. The Chicago Manual of Style is the classic but it's expensive. Michelle has a collection of inexpensive paperbacks that she refers to frequently:

  * The Penguin Writer's Manual.
  * Plain Words.

Also useful are the following websites:

  * www.goodenglish.org
  * www.chicagomanualofstyle.org
  * www.quickanddirtytips.com/education/grammar

### Insufficient Material

**_"I write short stories when a little idea occurs to me,  that I know isn't a part of a novel that will stand by itself and should be concentrated."_**

Roddy Doyle

Sometimes a book has excellent content but just not enough of it. That's harsh, because there are lots of very short books on the market that do well. The trouble is, those books are generally from established publishers, and marketed as gift or bathroom reading books.

If you are trying to establish your credibility as an author, writing an 8,000-word book is going to make that harder. Fine down the line, if you deliberately market it as a short book or guide, but if you're just starting out, it's not the best tactic.

So how long should your book be?

Google classify a short story as 7,500 words or less. Wikipedia go for 9,000 words. It's easier with fiction as there are categories for short stories. If your non-fiction book is 9,000 words or less then it is definitely short and should be marketed as such. We'd go so far as to include the word 'short' in the title or sub-title.

It may become part of a series of short guides or short stories. Fine. But let your readers know up-front so they don't think they're getting ripped off. They will let you know via reviews if they do feel that way.

It's not a good idea to pad out a book though – readers notice. If you content isn't long enough to be a standalone book, try combining it with another related topic. Or consider partnering with another author who may have suitable material to combine with yours.

Again, a good editor will tell you if your material isn't long enough to be a standalone book.

Another way of making a book longer is to find out what people want to know about your topic. You could ask on social media – we've both seen this done a lot by authors in the various groups we are in – or perhaps send out an email to your list. Another method is to use an online questionnaire. Again, you could use social media, email lists, groups, forums, friends, and family to distribute it. When you entries come in, you'll find new things to add to your book, as you start to come up with answers to their burning questions.

You can make online questionnaires using:

  * Google forms – www.google.com/drive
  * SurveyMonkey - <https://www.surveymonkey.com>

### Bad Language

**_"Writing for adults often means just increasing the swearing_** **_– but find an alternative to swearing and you've probably got a better line."_**

Steven Moffat

Does swearing still matter? You bet. The thing about swearing that used to make it effective was its ability to shock. That's no longer the case. People are too used to it now to be shocked. The problem is that most people are very tired of it and it's a turn-off.

In fiction, you don't need to have a swear word in every sentence to demonstrate that a character uses that sort of language. A word when you first introduce him/her and a couple of other places throughout the book are enough. The reader will get it.

For non-fiction, there is even less of an excuse. You will put off more readers than you attract by use of swearing. There's an expert in the UK who Michelle used to be a fan of – until she read one of his expletive-laden books.

Anthony Robbins swore repeatedly during a TED talk and put off many former fans. His huge fanbase can probably stand losing a few people – yours may not. Get a thesaurus and get creative!

# SECTION FOUR:

Save Time & Improve Your Writing

## Outsourcing – One Of Today's Best Time-Savers

**_"In the long run, outsourcing is another form of trade that benefits the US economy by giving us cheaper ways to do things."_**

Janet Yellen

[NANCY] I DON'T KNOW ABOUT you, but I don't want to spend 10% of my time writing and 90% doing other tasks. The answer to this conundrum? Outsource.

Popular outsourcing sites are Guru.com or oDesk.com but the one I'm using most often for time-consuming tasks is Fiverr. <http://fiverr.com>. Don't get me wrong – there's nothing wrong with Guru or oDesk – in fact I found an awesome book cover designer on oDesk – but for minimal bucks you can outsource to Fiverr folks and get great results.

Before jumping into Fiverr, be aware that Fiverr has a ranking system. When you're searching for an outsourcer, be sure to create a search filter that will only serve up peeps with high ratings and great feedback.

So what kind of Fiverr gigs do we recommend?

  1. Smashwords conversion. We've already told you about bookaholic: <http://fiverr.com/bookaholic>.

  2. Kindle conversions. Search Fiverr for "Kindle" or "Amazon" and you'll find a bunch of service providers.

  3. Editors. We haven't personally tried Fiverr editors as we have our own, but we have heard good things about:   
 <http://bit.ly/proofreadingfiverr> (much in demand)

<http://bit.ly/editingfiverr1>

 <http://bit.ly/editingfiverr2> (short books only)

  4. Promoting on Pinterest.
  5. Promoting on Instagram.
  6. Promoting on Twitter & Blogs. <http://fiverr.com/bknights> comes recommended by numerous authors. He has a number of gigs, aimed at promoting books via Twitter, blogs, and on Facebook.
  7. Announcing free Amazon KDP days (<http://fiverr.com/thedesertgirl> is EXCELLENT).
  8. Writing a press release.
  9. Book Marketing. On that note I want to talk about a provider CloutMedia <http://fiverr.com/cloutmedia> I've used them for several promotional campaigns and happily give them a big gold star! Check their listing before buying services as they request knowing the book before they talk to you about services. Once it's clear you're a good fit they'll send you a list of all of their promotional services. The gig I most often choose is <http://fiverr.com/cloutmedia/promote-your-book-with-my-public-relations-team-for-one-week> a one week promotion. The cost for the basic plan is $5 – but I generally pop for everything they do (total cost $75). It's well worth it to me as it gets my book and my name out to a huge number of potential readers – and the more places out there on the Web with your name and your book, the better. At the time of this writing, the extras I use are:  _"I will Publish to Examiner NY News and Allvoices News FB Spon Story for $40".  _ _"I will Distribute your free book promo in the top books network newsletter 200,000 subscribers_ _for $20".  _ _"I will Distribute and publish the above bonus review to yahoo and bubbles both are high PR backlinks for $10".  _There are plenty of Fiverr gigs that offer to post your book on their Facebook page. I've used a few but right now can't recommend any as I couldn't see results from that promotion. For Facebook, Michelle and I both recommend inexpensive Facebook ads – a topic you'll find in another chapter.
  10. 10. Book covers.
  11. 11. Logo creation.

###### **SUCCESS TIP**

###### _If you pick a Fiverr_ _gig for your book cover_ _or logo, look for one that will do some revisions. It's rare to get a design that you love on the first go-round._

## Organization For The Busy Author

**" _First comes thought; then organization of that though, into ideas and plans; then transformation of those plans into reality."_**

Napoleon Hill

### Keeping Track Of Manuscripts

PICTURE THIS: YOU SPENT MONTHS writing and perfecting your book. You paid for an edit of it by buying several Fiverr gigs (from the same person!). You sent it out in Word format to proof-readers to check for errors, and in PDF format to some beta readers for feedback, and printed out for other beta readers. Then you either formatted it yourself or outsourced it, for Kindle and for CreateSpace.

The end result is a computer containing lots of different versions of your manuscript. Which one is the most up-to-date one? You can't always go just by the date on the document. What if you saved a newer version in a different folder, or another computer, or perhaps you have a paper format with corrections that you haven't added to the copy on your computer?

Here is a suggested strategy for keeping track of the different versions of your manuscript. You may be able to use it or adapt it to suit your own way of working:

  * Join Dropbox. It's an excellent (and secure) cloud storage site. It puts a folder on your local computer (or several computers if you have more than one), as well as storing anything you put into that folder in the cloud as well. You can access your Dropbox folder from anywhere with an Internet connection, or via tablet/smartphone apps. This also removes the possibility of losing your manuscript if something happens to your computer. Dropbox synchronizes anything you save in the local folder with those saved in the cloud, every time you close a document that is stored in Dropbox. <http://bit.ly/drpbxstorage>

  * Create a new folder within your Dropbox folder for each book that you have written/are writing. Save everything to do with each book into its relevant folder.

  * When you have finished your manuscript, save it as NAME_MASTERDRAFT in its folder in Dropbox.

  * Use Word or another word processing program that has the ability to collaborate.

  * Turn on Track Changes in the Master Draft document. In Word, this is REVIEW > TRACK CHANGES > TRACK CHANGES.

  * Save a copy of your Master Draft document for each of the people who will be reviewing your manuscript. Add their name and a version number to each, e.g. NAME_MASTER_SAMANTHA_v1. You'll probably want to start with your editor – and possibly wait for his/her comments before sending out to anyone else.

  * When the manuscript comes back, save it with a new name, something like: NAME_MASTER_CHECKEDSAMANTHA_v2.

  * You may need to make changes and send it back again.

  * Email the relevant copies of the Master Draft document out to your proof-readers. Explain that you use the reviewing facility and ask them not to turn off Track Changes.

  * When you get the proofs back, save them in the book's folder in Dropbox.

  * Then go back to NAME_MASTERDRAFT document and rename it as NAME_MASTERREVISED_READERINITIALS (e.g. BOOK_REVISEDDRAFT_PK).

  * Have that master document open at the same time as one of the checked copies. Resize them so they each take up half the computer screen.

  * Go through each of the suggestions/changes in the checked copy, making the same changes (if you agree with them) in the master copy.

  * Mark off on a spreadsheet that you have made the changes from X reader on the master revised manuscript.

  * Do this with each of the checked copies of the manuscript, adding each new reader's initials to the document's name (e.g. BOOK _REVISEDDRAFT_PK_SR_TD_JI)

  * When you have finished making all the changes from each copy, save a copy of the master document as NAME_REVISEDDRAFT_CHECKED.

  * You may want to go through the manuscript yourself to make your own additional changes, or move things around. If so, it may need to go back to your editor or proof-readers again.

  * Save your final, checked and revised copy as NAME_MASTER_FINAL. Delete all other copies. You still have them in your email attachments if you ever need to refer to them – but you probably won't need to!

  * Use copies of the Master Final to format for different versions – CreateSpace, LightningSource, or whatever.

  * If you find any errors once the book is published (and you'll be a rare author if you don't!), mark the changes on your tracking spreadsheet and on the MASTER_FINAL copy, calling it NAME_MASTER_FINAL_V2. Then make the same changes in the various formats. Mark each format as the latest version, e.g. V2.

Does that seem overly complicated? Trust us, it's much more complicated not to keep track.

### Free/Promo Days

It's also a good idea to keep a spreadsheet in Dropbox with details of each of your books on separate tabs. Things you generally have to go back to Amazon to look up – ASIN, ISBN, Date of publication, Number of pages, etc.

Adding this information to your spreadsheet makes promoting free or special offer periods much quicker and easier. You could also send the spreadsheet – or part of it – to someone else to promote your days for you. BKNights on Fiverr is good:

<http://fiverr.com/bknights/promote-and-market-your-free-kindle-book-to-10300-active-facebook-readersfans>

If you are enrolled in KDP Select, keep details of when the 90-day period starts and ends, any free promo days you have used or scheduled.

You don't have to be in KDP Select to have special offer days. Reduce your price and alert book bargain sites. Many of them require some notice so planning it in advance makes it easier to keep track of who you have submitted to.

### Organizing Your Time

Whether you have all day to write or just an hour, you need to organize your time or you may waste it. Whether you like it or not – and whether you are traditionally published or not – you are in fact a business person.

Many writers really didn't like thinking of themselves as business people, they prefer to be 'artists'. The trouble with that is that there are plenty of starving artists. Business people tend to be more focused and more successful. And less likely to get in trouble for not completing their tax returns in time!

Thinking of yourself as a business person means organizing your time into periods for writing, marketing, publishing (if you're self-published), and finance. It means carefully keeping receipts and checks so you can send them to your accountant at the end of the tax year. It means not wasting time on Facebook or YouTube when you are 'researching' for your latest book. It means really using your time well, because you know you have to divide your time between writing, promoting your writing, and taking care of the royalties from your writing.

We suggest making writing time a percentage of the time you have available – perhaps 50% - and dividing the rest of the time up for the other things you need to do. These things will change over time, depending on what stage you are at with your latest book.

Here's a suggested schedule:

Time available – 2 hours.

  * Writing– 1 hour.

  *  Marketing – 40 minutes. Submitting to free & bargain book sites, updating spreadsheet, writing press release, updating Facebook page.

  *  Finance – 10 minutes. Scan receipts into Evernote, update finance spreadsheet.

  *  Publishing – 10 minutes. Send manuscript to Fiverr person for formatting for Smashwords;

There are several apps that make scheduling your time easier:

#### RescueTime

<https://www.rescuetime.com>

A fantastic service for both Mac and PC that shows you how productive you have been. You tell it which activities you do and how work-related they are, and you can tell it to sound an alarm when you have been working for too long on a non work-related activity.

The free version allows you to track how you spend your time, set goals, and receive a weekly report via email.

The paid version is $6 per month (payable annually) and lets you block distracting websites, track offline as well as online time, set alerts, track accomplishments, and see more detailed reports of how you have spent your time.

Michelle uses RescueTime all the time, even when not working, as she loathes wasting time and is horrified by how distracted she can get. If you've ever popped onto YouTube to watch one video and surfaced two hours later, having watched hundreds, you'll know what we mean!

#### Focus@Will

<https://www.focusatwill.com>

If you don't have a quiet place to write, or are easily distracted by outside noises or family activity, you may fine Focus@Will very helpful. It is a neuroscience based web tool that uses music to increase the user's attention span. They claim you can improve your concentration by up to 400%.

You will need headphones or ear buds if you use Focus@Will, because it plays music, but it really does help concentration. The designers say that people can generally only concentrate for 20 minute periods, but that their tool can increase that to 100 minutes. It does it by using music that sooths the part of the brain (the limbic system) that is "always on the lookout for danger, food, sex or shiny things"!

There are free and paid versions – paid being $3.99 per month or $34.99 per year.

You won't like this tool if you need silence to work but as it is free, you may like to give it a try and see if it can improve your productivity.

#### The Pomodoro Technique

Steve Scott, the bestselling non-fiction author, recommended the Pomodoro Technique to us and we find it very useful. The idea is to work for a set period of time – with 20 minutes being the block that most people find best – and then have a 5 minute break. The break actually helps concentration when you start work again. You can use the time to stretch, do some deep breathing, get a drink, walk around a little, etc.

There are a number of apps to help with this technique, or you can use a simple manual timer or timer on a smartphone.

**Pomodoro Apps:**

  * Pomio - $2.99 (IOS only. Available from the app store.)
  * Pomodoro Pro - $2.99 (Android. Available from Google Play.)
  * FocusBooster – free (desktop, for Mac & PC). <http://www.focusboosterapp.com>

#### DailyRoutine

If you can get to grips with this app you may find it wonderful. It has a bit of a learning curve though.

You set up your daily routine – whether that's an hour or two or a full day – and chunk it into blocks. The app will alert you when you're due a break or it's time to move onto the next activity.

This is very useful if you're a writer who loves to write, because it forces you to devote some of your time to marketing, publishing, and other essential but less appealing activities.

## Overcoming Perfectionism

**_"Writers should disavow themselves of the concept of an 'ideal venue for writing a book' because it leads to 'wimpification': "I cannot write because the conditions are not ideal"."_**

Guy Kawasaki

HOW MANY WORDS DID YOU write today? The top earners write over 2,000 per day. They don't tell us how many of those they read through and delete the next day though!

Perfectionism is a creativity and productivity killer. We all want to produce good books, but if we are such perfectionists that we never produce more than one or two, then our perfectionism is a problem.

Michelle's dad is a perfectionist. If he does something he does it WELL. If he decorates a room the wallpaper will be perfectly vertical, perfectly stuck to the wall, with no air bubbles and no finger marks. The paint will look pristine, because he will have spent hours laboriously sanding down the wood, applying the primer, then the paint, and being very, very careful to keep it from going over the edges. It is so stressful for him and the rest of the family that he only decorates about every 25 years. No-one is willing to mention that the house could do with a spruce-up, they can't face the ordeal!

Among his better qualities, Michelle unfortunately inherited his perfectionism. Nothing is ever good enough. Nothing is ever right. So she was 48 before she plucked up the courage to publish her first book, despite having been around as a freelance writer since her 20s. It was different writing for other people and freelancing, she could hide behind their names. Striking out on her own was scary.

Perfectionist traits can be very serious. They can make us lesser people than we were destined to be, poorer than we should be, and with a feeling that we could have achieved more if we had but had the immense amount of time that we need to make everything we do perfect.

Well the big news is that nothing is perfect, ever. If it is, it soon stops being perfect, decays, gets surpassed in some way. Nothing you do is ever going to be or remain perfect so you may as well determine to do your best and leave it at that, without going the extra 100 miles down the road to perfection.

Your books will contain mistakes. All books do. Even books put out by traditional publishers. Actually, especially books put out by traditional publishers! Some of the mistakes that have slipped by their legions of proof-readers and editors are amazing. But they survive.

The Guardian newspaper in the UK is well-known for containing errors. People still buy it. It's quite entertaining looking for the mistakes!

It is certainly true that some Indies have given the rest of us a bad name by producing badly written, badly proofed, and badly edited books. Rest assured that if you have any perfectionist traits at all, you won't be putting out books like that.

With regards to content, there is only a certain amount of time you can spend on a book before you start damaging it. Sometimes it is best to just let creativity flow and stop getting in its way. Maybe if you had spent ten years writing your novel instead of ten months then it could have been different. Better? Not necessarily.

Stephanie Meyer wrote the very popular Twilight series of books and said in an interview that she looks back on them now and wishes she could tweak a few things, delete things, add things.

We probably all feel that way when re-reading our older books. With modern publishing, though, we can go back a tweak things if we really want to.

The point about the Twilight series is that it was supremely successful despite the author feeling that there were things she could have done better. She didn't let perfectionism get in her way and neither should we.

Here is a look at some of the bad things that perfectionism causes, or is caused by, and what to do about them:

#### Low Self-Esteem

Low self-esteem is common among perfectionists. The feeling that your work is never good enough can carry through to feeling that YOU aren't good enough.

What to do:

  * The way to learn to write is to write, to actually get on and do it, rather than what most people do – just wish and dream and talk about it.

  * The way to get better at writing is to read more and write more.

  * Accept the fact that your writing isn't as good today as it will be next week, new month, or next year. You are a capable of lifelong learning and development. Now is the time to be successful, not next year when your writing has progressed to another stage of development. It will be fun looking back at your early books in a few years and seeing just how much your writing has developed. Every author develops, their writing matures, changes, switches direction. There's nothing wrong with that. There's nothing wrong with starting where you are and seeing where your writing takes you.

  * If your low self-esteem is blocking your writing creativity, try working on shorter articles and blog posts, rather than tackling full books.

  * Consider taking a writing course such as our friend Cathy Presland's free course 'Becoming A Writer'.

  * Check out writing groups local to you, you may find a good one. Michelle tried a couple but didn't enjoy being given writing exercises on topics that were of no interest to her. She found several online courses that were more suitable for her.

#### Low Productivity

Perfectionism causes one of the big productivity killers - self-editing. Lots of writers suffer from this. It's what happens when you're writing and glance up at an earlier sentence, spot a typo, and go back to fix it. Then you decide to run the spellchecker to find all the spelling errors. Then you continue writing and realize that it isn't flowing quite as you'd like it to, so you go back to the beginning to re-read it all and see where you went wrong.

You can go on like that all day and only produce a couple of paragraphs of new material!

What to do:

  * Set a timer and determine to write as fast as you can for a set number of minutes. Leave checking it for another day, just write. Your ability to be productive is crushed if you are tempted to check your work as you write. Get in the flow by just writing – writing anything.

  * Use one of the apps or web tools mentioned in the Organization For The Busy Author chapter.

  * Eat healthily. Living on high-sugar foods causes lack of concentration and a touch of anxiety.

#### Judgmental Attitudes

We all have the tendency to judge our own – and others' – work. And we tend to be more harsh about our own work than someone else would be about ours. That's why many actors don't watch their own films.

Your editor has the skills and experience to judge your book – not you. If you don't have an editor, get one. Find the best you can afford, even if it's just a Fiverr gig. You definitely need someone else's opinion of your work.

Joining some writing groups on Facebook, LinkedIn, or Google Plus, can also be helpful. You'll find out that you are quite normal and we are all struck with the judgmental bug occasionally. You can also offer to critique each other's work.

If you have a tendency to judge your work, turn it into a good thing. Realize that you can use your keen judgment to improve your work but don't let it cripple your creativity.

If you have been listening to others' judgments, only take notice of them if they actually know what they are taking about. Stephen King says it best:

###### _"No, it's not a very good story – its author was too busy listening to other voices to listen as closely as he should have to the one coming from inside."_

The best way to silence the 'other' voices is to keep your book to yourself until it is finished, and to avoid reading reviews. ALL reviews.

Go with your instincts, edit and polish, and set it loose. If the world isn't ready for it yet, it may be in a few years. Get on with another book in the meantime.

# FAQ

**_"Before I refuse to take your questions,  I have an opening statement."_**

Ronald Reagan

##### How Do I Enroll/Unenroll My eBook From KDP Select?

You will need to make sure that your eBook is NOT enrolled in KDP Select if you want to sell it as a digital version on any platform other than an Amazon-owned one. So if you want to offer it on Smashwords, Kobo, iBooks, etc., you need to unenroll. Here's how ...

Log into your KDP dashboard (<http://kdp.amazon.com>).

You can see which of your eBooks are currently enrolled in KDP Select by looking at the last column. If they aren't enrolled there will be an ENROLL link. Click on that to initiate the process.

Click the yellow ENROLL button to join KDP Select. Note that you can enroll in KDP Select before actually publishing your eBook but the 90-day contract won't start until the day you publish it.

Remember that this is a 90-day exclusivity contract, which means you can only sell your eBook via Amazon during this time. If your book has previously been available in digital format elsewhere (e.g. on Kobo, or as a PDF on your website) you will need to make sure it is removed from sale before enrolling in KDP Select.

You can also enroll/unenroll from within your book's dashboard on KDP. On the Bookshelf screen, click on your book's title. On the first screen, number 1, you will see the 'Introducing KDP Select' box and you can click the checkbox in that to enroll.

Once you have enrolled, your Bookshelf screen will show a tick and an INFO link:

You can unenroll at any time but the contract will still continue to run for the 90 days, it just won't renew for another 90 days. It is a good idea to unenroll before the end of the 90-day contract if you don't want to continue with KDP Select, just in case you forget and it automatically starts another 90-day cycle (although you have a couple of days grace period). Having to wait another 90 days would be frustrating if you were waiting to get your book onto another platform!

##### Is It Worth Spending The Time Producing YouTube Videos? I heard book trailers don't work very well.

It's definitely worth spending some time – or outsourcing the production. Book trailers are very useful to have on your website/blog, Goodreads profile, and elsewhere.

Also, a YouTube video will be indexed by Google within an hour of it going live. That's amazing, and something you can't even buy! It makes your book appear much more frequently in search engine results when people search for keywords that you have used in your book titles and descriptions.

Your video doesn't have to be excellent, it just has to be there (although it helps if it is reasonable!) in order to get listed on Google

There's an excellent book on how to use YouTube, 'YouTube Video Marketing Secrets Revealed' by Montina Portis: <http://amzn.com/B00E34F0ZO>.

It is focused mainly on how to build a YouTube channel and a following, but the points are relevant even for those of us who just want to use YouTube for book trailers.

In the book the author – who has a huge YouTube following – confirms that 'How To' videos are one of the most searched phrases on YouTube. If you can create a 'How To' out of your (probably non-fiction) book, you stand a good chance to building an audience.

##### Is It Still Worth Joining KDP Select?

As the free promotion strategy is no longer working as well as it used to, many authors are wondering whether or not to bother with KDP Select as it prevents them selling their book on some of the other platforms.

Our view is that Amazon is still _by far_ the biggest seller of books and you aren't really losing much by not having your book on other platforms initially **_IF_** you are a new author. Existing authors already have a readership and can probably launch well without KDP Select. An initial 99c strategy is working well for many established authors. See Steve Scott's book 'Is $.99 The New Free?' <http://amzn.com/B00EGRZTZY>.

New authors are still reporting a short-term climb in the rankings during and just after free days. If that climb gets you into the top 100 that is worth blogging/tweeting about. If it gets you to #1 in your category, that can be worked up into a lot of publicity. Publicity is expensive to buy and, if being tied to a 90-day contract is what you have to pay to generate some good free publicity angles, it's well worth it.

We believe it is worth enrolling for the first 90 days of your book's publication if it is your first book – or first in a genre that is new to you. Unenroll before the end of the 90 day contract, and start getting your book onto other platforms as soon as it's over.

Remember that you _can_ be on CreateSpace and Audible while enrolled in KDP Select.

##### How Do I Join Goodreads As An Author?

Join as a real person first, then 'claim' one of your own books. Goodreads will convert your profile to an author profile, which you can then populate with videos, your blog feed, photos, etc. You should get an email within a day or two confirming that they have accepted you as a Goodreads author.

##### How Often Should I Do Some Marketing For My Books?

Have something running almost continually. That's not as difficult as it sounds. It doesn't have to take up a lot of time and/or money if you plan it out in advance, automate as much as you can, then get back to writing. Marketing doesn't have to cost at all if you focus on social media.

A good marketing schedule for a book could include:

  * Running a Goodreads giveaway. If you can, run a Goodreads self-serve ad to back up your giveaway. Run it for a couple of days towards the end of the giveaway period.
  * Some Facebook ads.
  * A press release. Perhaps you hit the top 10 in your category or something happens in the news that is related to a topic in one of your books.
  * Approaches to Amazon top 1000 reviewers to ask if they would like a free copy of your book in return for a review.
  * Approaches to book bloggers to ask if they would have you as a guest blogger.
  * Approaches to other authors to ask if they would like a guest spot on your blog.
  * Weekly or twice weekly blog posts on your own blog (which should be syndicated to Goodreads).
  * Several Facebook posts per week, as well as comments on other people's posts, and replies to comments on your own page.
  * Several Twitter posts per week.
  * An occasional update to LinkedIn – when you publish a new book, get some press coverage, do a guest blog, etc.

You get the picture.

##### How Do I Make My Kindle Book Permanently Free?

First set the price as zero in Smashwords. Then get other people to click 'Tell us about a lower price' on the book's Amazon page. It usually only takes two or three people reporting it to get Amazon to make it free.

##### Will I Really Make More Money By Having My Book On Other Platforms?

Almost certainly – but it may be a slow start. Don't expect to make as much as you make from Amazon at first. However, iBookstore in particular is booming. The Alliance of Independent Authors did a great interview with Mark Coker of Smashwords on the opportunities for publishing and marketing on the iBookstore: <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_Lpzr0oDk4I>.

##### I Can't Afford A Website – What Can I Do?

Firstly, it doesn't have to be expensive. You can get hosting for under $4 per month and, if you use something like WordPress to build your site, the software part of it is free.

A free blog isn't as good as having your own site. People will be able to tell it's a free blog, which isn't great for your credibility. Also, you won't get an email address with it, so you'll be reliant on Hotmail, or whatever.

A Goodreads blog is a good alternative. It's free without appearing to be free and it's really easy to use once you have signed up for your author profile.

If you don't want a website/blog, you can always use your Amazon author page and direct people to that from your books or social media.

#### Do I Need A Professional Photo?

A photo is a must for your website, Goodreads page, Facebook, sending with your author bio when requesting reviews, etc.

You need a nice photo of you looking professional, but not necessarily a professional photo. Bear in mind the rules that the professionals networking site LinkedIn have. They don't allow funny or silly photos, they prefer people to look business-like and the shot just be of head and shoulders. The same goes for author photos.

Smartphones take good quality photos now, so get someone to take a photo of you using a smartphone when you are professionally-dressed (suit, smart dress and jacket, perhaps your professional uniform). Make sure the lighting is good – take it outside if not.

The photo does need to be high resolution, especially if it may be used in print. Even newspapers request 300dpi minimum resolution.

#### How Do I Get An 'Official' Email Address?

If your website was created for you by a company, ask them. Often they ask clients at the time of creating the site if they want email accounts, but people don't always realize the benefits of having an email with the same domain name as their website.

If you created your site/blog yourself, check your hosting company. Usually there is the facility to create email accounts in cPanel and it is quick and easy.

Join us in the Facebook group (see Resources) and we can talk you through it.

.

# Resources

"Time is the scarcest resource and unless it is managed nothing else can be managed."

Peter Drucker

THERE ARE A NUMBER OF books and courses that have helped us over the years, as well as websites, courses, and podcasts. Immersing yourself in the world of writing and publishing is essential. We all need to keep learning, keep developing our craft, and keep on top of new developments.

#### Books

  * Structuring Your Novel, K.M.Weiland

  * Writing Fiction: The Practical Guide from New York's Acclaimed Creative Writing School
  * Make A Killing On Kindle, Michael Alvear
  * Eats, Shoots & Leaves, Lynne Truss
  * On Writing Well, William Zinsser
  * How To Write For Kindle, Nancy Hendrickson
  * The Kindle Publishing Bible, Tom Corson-Knowles
  * Best-Selling Nonfiction eBook Ideas, Steve Scott
  * PR for Authors, Nancy Hendrickson & Michelle Campbell-Scott
  * Sell More Books, Nancy Hendrickson & Michelle Campbell-Scott

#### Podcasts

  * The Creative Penn - <http://bit.ly/creativepenn>
  * BookGoodies – <http://bit.ly/bookgoodies>
  * Write The Book - <http://bit.ly/writethebookpodcast>
  * Writer's Voice - <http://bit.ly/writersvoicepodcast>

#### Websites/Blogs

  * The Creative Penn – www.thecreativepenn.com
  * Copyblogger – www.copyblogger.com
  * Positive Writer - <http://positivewriter.com/>
  * The Write Practice - <http://thewritepractice.com/>
  * Jeff Goins - <http://goinswriter.com/>
  * Make A Living Writing - <http://www.makealivingwriting.com/>

#### Courses

  * Understanding Microsoft Word: Themes & Styles - <http://bit.ly/wordstyle>

  * Breaking Into TV: Go From Press Release To CNN In 48 Hours - <http://bit.ly/PRtoCNNcourse>
  * How To Publish On Kindle - <http://bit.ly/kindlecourse> (includes excellent marketing advice)
  * How To Create An Awesome Demo Video - <http://bit.ly/demovideocourse> \- (aimed at business owners but also ideal for authors and course creators)

#### Facebook Group

We have had such support ourselves from author groups that we decided to start one just for the readers of this book.

It's at: <https://www.facebook.com/groups/mybwh/> and we'd love you to join us. It's a 'secret' group, which means that any posts, comments, or likes you make in it won't show up on your friends' newsfeeds (unless your friends are also members of the group).

#### Free Downloads

We have put a couple of free downloads on the site 'For Authors'. This includes the document showing how to get started with Facebook ads.

<http://www.forauthors.info/downloads/mybwhdownloads/>

You'll need a password to get in – again, it's just for people who have bought this book. Here it is:

**MYBWH390**

# About The Authors

**Nancy Hendrickson**

When she was a child, Nancy wanted to be an archaeologist, but instead fell in love with the power of words.

She was traditionally published until she discovered the financial benefits of self-publishing.

Her books include:

  * Writer's Block: Vanquished Using Images, Oracles and Brain-Hacks

  * How to Write for Kindle
  * 35 Must-Have iPhone & iPad Apps for Awesome Pictures
  * WordPress Your Way
  * Finding Your Roots Online
  * Beginners Guide to the Sun
  * Pinterest – Build Your Brand, Your Tribe, Your Sales
  * Freelance Success: Write Your Way To A Dream Lifestyle

Nancy lives in San Diego.

**Michelle Campbell-Scott**

Like many authors, Michelle has been through a number of careers (advertising, public relations, teaching, training). She prefers the idea that this has brought a wealth of experience to her writing rather than the fact that she is a bit fickle.

She wrote courses and articles for other people for many years before plucking up the courage to enter the publishing arena. She learned the necessary skills from Cathy Presland's 'Publish Your Book On Kindle' course (<http://bit.ly/kindlecourse>) and now publishes books under her own and pen names.

Her books include:

  * 7 Myths About Aquaponics (as Michelle Booth)
  * Goodreads for Authors
  * Mo: The Talking Dog (as Michelle Booth)

  * The 10-Day Skin Brushing Detox (as Mia Campbell)
  * Inversion Therapy (as Mia Campbell)

She also has courses on Udemy:

  * Goodreads for Authors : Book promotion & marketing
  * Double Your Royalties - Learn how to get your book on CreateSpace

Michelle lives in the north-western UK and is about to embark on a roadtrip around the US and Canada.

Joint books that Nancy and Michelle have written together:

  * Sell More Books: 55 Free Promotions That Work

  * PR for Authors: How to use public relations, press releases, and social media to sell more books

