Engineer To Author - Journey In To Self-Publishing Books And Courses

[Noam]

I'm going to put a condition on this because I don't have Steve's site link anymore (I've asked for it by PM) and I will confirm here, but if it's the same, one of my mentors who was interviewed on the Smart Passive Income actually recommended his sites for promotion.

However, no comment on the rules of the forum and promotion - that's for the admins to decide. Appreciate the offer either way, Steve.

 

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[Noam]

UPDATE
----------

Editing, editing, editing.

- Got the 2 covers back, will post the one I choose here. The often recommended Angie (https://www.fiverr.com/pro_ebookcov...r-with-bonus?funnel=2014122421335917012874520) did an outstanding job for $5/cover.

- Got the edits back from my freelancer, SO happy I shelled out for editing. He made something like 3800 changes in formatting, grammar, deleting repetitions in writing, etc... I still need to go through and do formatting myself, but really happy I have a good editor on hand for the future.

- Decided to pay someone to format my Kindle. I love code and can do it myself, but I know it's going to take 2-3x as long as I plan and I'd rather pay someone like $30 to do it.

On that note, very proud of myself because I'm a huge perfectionist and control freak, but am enjoying the low stress of having other people do the work I either can't do as well (editing my own book - I'm biased), or don't want to do (formatting). It also is kind of an ego boost being a boss XD.


The plan is still to finish the book by Saturday. It will be marked completed and uploaded, and then I am taking a week off - I need a vacation LOL.

It will actually be LAUNCHED Monday, January 19th, for a free promo. Then, after 5 days to 99 cents for 2-3 days. Then I will decide on the next price bump.

This week, I will be collecting e-mails/sending out request for reviews from folks.

I don't expect much money off this book, but some cash would be nice. More so, it's a lesson for the future. But, success for me would be one sale from someone who isn't my friend, because that means I've officially started to transition into passive income.

I am 99.9999% sure I can make at least one sale XD.

Anybody who wants a copy can PM me their e-mail and I'd be more than happy to send it for free.

 

[thriveful]

Sounds like you have a pretty good plan. The 5 days is great to get some reviews, but it still leaves 25 days for you to feature in the Hot New Releases section on the right sidebar of the Amazon listings page. This is critical to getting some more exposure. It only lasts for 30 days though.

Ideally, 5-10 reviews (good ones ideally), then a 99 cent promotion with some non spammy book promotion organisation, sell 200-300 books on that day (depending on niche and book quality), raise price to $2.99 the following day and ride the wave of increased exposure, high category rankings, and 70% commission from Amazon. not too shabby

 

[Noam]

Sounds like you have a pretty good plan. The 5 days is great to get some reviews, but it still leaves 25 days for you to feature in the Hot New Releases section on the right sidebar of the Amazon listings page. This is critical to getting some more exposure. It only lasts for 30 days though.

Ideally, 5-10 reviews (good ones ideally), then a 99 cent promotion with some non spammy book promotion organisation, sell 200-300 books on that day (depending on niche and book quality), raise price to $2.99 the following day and ride the wave of increased exposure, high category rankings, and 70% commission from Amazon. not too shabby

Hey Steve, for everyone's benefit maybe you can elaborate - I've heard it's best to sell the book at 99 cents for 3ish days then raise to 2.99. You've seen better returns on a one day 99 cent promo then switching straight to 2.99?


Also FYI to all reading - I'm not going to post Steve's link/site to keep with admin rules, but it was the site recommended by my mentor who has used it several times.

 

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[thriveful]

It all depends. The only real reason to sell for a longer period of time, is to get sales, to boost the rank of your book so it becomes more visible. More visibility = more sales, providing the book is good and not getting bad reviews.

Most people are launching their books with no other means than free postings on FB groups, telling friends, and without a lot of strategy. They need to keep the price down to hold sales up to allow potential sceptics to take a chance.

If however, you use a good promotion service (I won't mention any, there are some out there, almost all paid) you can catapult that book into the top 1000, or even top 500 or better in the kindle store. If your book hits it's high spot, it's likely not going any higher, the only way is down.

So, you have it at 99c for 35% commission from Amazon, or raise it to $2.99 to go into the 70% commission bracket. You need to sell a crap load more books at 99 cents to match the commissions from less sales at $2.99. 35c or so per 99 cent sale, just over $2 USD per $2.99 sale.

It won't hurt leaving it at 99 cents for 3 days, especially if you are trying to drive subscribers to a lead page, in that case, the more eyes on your book the better. It just depends on your strategy.

I'd also definitely advise setting up a landing page to capture emails if you haven't already. Throw a 5 page report together, or a free audio of the book, and give it away. You might have that in hand anyway.

Any more questions on this, or on Kindle ebook publishing in general, let me know. You can definitely make some money doing it. I have two books almost ready for publishing, I was making around $1000 per month from 5 kindle books, it drop off in the end, and you need to keep publishing, but it is a stellar method of creating income, and capturing emails. More effective than blogging when you are trying to build an audience.

-S

 

[thriveful]

Took a look at your site. If you can create a landing page to send subscribers from the book, great. I wouldn't just send them to the home page, the conversion rate will be bad,

 

[Noam]

Hey Steve thanks for the info!

Yep I put a free report together that's going to be given to people when they go to a lead page. I was trying to set up some capturing last week but I need to do some coding, so I'm looking for a MailCheat(Chimp) freelancer at the moment - Pretty much, I have a central e-mail list and just want to have a separate group that I know came from books (so I can send everyone the same e-mails/updates) and so that they will get a link to the free giveaway but others will not.

Again this book will be sort of a test of what you can do with Amazon, obviously I want some success, but I'll learn for the next one... because there's definitely going to be another... or a few XD. So many ideas!

 

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[thriveful]

You could just set up a new list in MailCheat(Chimp) and grab the url of that, and just send the kindle readers the MailCheat(Chimp) hosted form, OR set up a free bitly account, and create a link in bitly to use in your kindle books, which will allow you direct them to a landing page and also get stats.

 

[Noam]

You could just set up a new list in MailCheat(Chimp) and grab the url of that, and just send the kindle readers the MailCheat(Chimp) hosted form, OR set up a free bitly account, and create a link in bitly to use in your kindle books, which will allow you direct them to a landing page and also get stats.

Yep I prefer to integrate with my current list since everyone's going to get the same newsletters. But if it ends up being too much of a pain, I'll have a separate list and I can set it up myself super quick - I just see no reason to keep two separate lists, since with the amount of products I'll eventually have, it'll become a nightmare to track them all.

Also - not sure if you can send out one MailCheat(Chimp) campaign to multiple lists - or can you?

 

[thriveful]

Yeah, you can duplicate a campaign and send it to another list. That said, you could just take the mail chimp form link, or your landing page link, stick it into bitly.com and create a shortlink, and use that in the book. You need to get a free bitly account to be able to track those links, but no big deal.

Worse case scenario, you could create two identical landing pages on your site, and have a shortended bitly link for each one, to allow you to ascertain which call to action was converting better, front or back of book.

Plenty of ways to skin the cat !

 

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[Noam]

Pros of this week - Book is off to the formatter! Release date planned - January 23rd.

Cons of this week - Complete burn out.


I planned to take a week off but I need it. I was literally scraping the bottom of the oil barrel. I was the one who said I didn't want to work 14 hour days and wanted time off to re-charge, and I didn't work that many hours but it sure felt like it. Work started to suck. I got into this because I LIKE this and it's not super work-ful, like working for someone. Hell, just managing employees is fun!

In the New Year I will really have to focus on balance, which is missing. I mean, I grew up around a workaholic Dad and I went through Engineering, so work runs in my blood. It means I can create 200 page books in 4 months, but it also means some of life passes me by.

Again - awareness is key, and I'm not too worried as long as I can pull myself out. Lots of growth I'll be writing about and reflecting on on my week off... along with sleeping and things that have absolutely NOTHING to do with goals and productivity .

See you all in a week!

 

[Gabriel]

I published My first ebook not long ago (6 days). Since I took it as learning experience, I wrote it fast ending up really trashy. I got its cover from Amazon's cover editor lol..
English is my 3rd language ( Spanish native, also french) I am a pre med (So I am an unducated writter), and I got a sale, 200 free downloads and a 5 star review. No keyword research, no nothing, zero.
Given what I just said, chances are, your book is going to rock.

 

[Noam]

I published My first ebook not long ago (6 days). Since I took it as learning experience, I wrote it fast ending up really trashy. I got its cover from Amazon's cover editor lol..
English is my 3rd language ( Spanish native, also french) I am a pre med (So I am an unducated writter), and I got a sale, 200 free downloads and a 5 star review. No keyword research, no nothing, zero.
Given what I just said, chances are, your book is going to rock.

Thanks for sharing Gabriel! Yeah one thing I learned from this was that it was great to write a long e-book that I think could help people, but next time I'm doing market research before (to see what's trending/what people want) and making it FAR shorter. However, this was a good learning experience since now I have a team of employees/freelancers to repeat the process and I will definitely be doing other Amazon products/books.

Vacation was good, sad to see it go - but all things must pass . I enjoyed no alarms and sleeping until noon XD. I learned that I FILL ALL MY TIME with work and it leaves me with no fun time, versus today in getting back to things I'm so less stressed and I think clearer... So a lot of stuff I was doing before, for example with goal setting, I skipped because it seemed needlessly complicated.

That, and moving slower has been awesome. So has being a sloth, video games, eating whatever I want, and so on... In the future, I'll definitely be giving "the machine" some rest.

There are more personal things I pondered during the vacation (how I work, relationships, time, etc.) but I don't really feel like discussing those here.

For next week - it's publishing book time, writing first Lifehack article (I applied and got to be a lifehack.org contributor, to help spread my name around!), some planning for Asia, and kicking a$$ and taking names... the usual. I just have to remember to take some breaks, have fun, and move slower while doing it.

 

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[Noam]

Hey guys and gals, it's been a while.

I won't give the details, and I'll keep this short. I moved to Vietnam from Canada to enjoy the higher lifestyle for lower cost of living, being around lots of digital nomads/entrepreneurs, and other things that go with Asia.

But more importantly I released my book. It's free until March 25th. Check it out if you'd like some help getting over fear, anxiety, jealousy, comparison to others, procrastination, and learning meditation. It's a monster .

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00UWFMJHK/?tag=tff-amazonparser-20

 

[Peakdesire]

Hey guys and gals, it's been a while.

I won't give the details, and I'll keep this short. I moved to Vietnam from Canada to enjoy the higher lifestyle for lower cost of living, being around lots of digital nomads/entrepreneurs, and other things that go with Asia.

But more importantly I released my book. It's free until March 25th. Check it out if you'd like some help getting over fear, anxiety, jealousy, comparison to others, procrastination, and learning meditation. It's a monster .

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00UWFMJHK/?tag=tff-amazonparser-20

Awesome dude!!

I just finished my book as well

What kind of marketing are you doing for this book?

 

[Noam]

Hey Peakdesire! (and also to anyone interested). Here's some stuff I did:

- Wrote two guest posts for higher profile blogs to get my name out and my book (led to increased traffic for blog and probably some downloads) near release date/soon after
- Used BuckBooks as a promo when went to 99 cents (as I will mention later, this was a KEYSTONE in getting to bestseller list)
- Bought a Twitter promo on Fiverr to get tweeted out to multiple accounts, mentioned on a blog, etc. I don't think this was very useful.

Some stats:

- 750-800 free copies of the book were given away.
- BuckBooks SUPREMELY helped get my book out there. If you can, get them to list for you. I credit this for me getting to triple #1 status bestselling in Psychology, Depression, and Self-Help/Success in Canada, and double #1 in Pathologies and Depression, while being in the top #20 of self-help in the US (WHICH IS HUGE!!!!)

I was floored by these results. Sales are slowing down so I am playing around with price, description, and categories.

But overall I am incredibly happy. I hit three micro-goals within two days of each other for earnings which I thought would take me months.

I FIRMLY believe in what I'm doing and that success will happen eventually. I also officially have some passive income.

Next week - start writing next book, alongside some more infrastructure to showcase this one. Idea has already been validated by my blog (lots of traffic and questions), as opposed to this book where I wrote what I wanted to then tried to market it for what people wanted. I will also aim to make it shorter... MOTM is 186 pages. I'd like this one to be around 100, but whatever information needs to come out comes out when I write.

"PICS OR IT DIDN'T HAPPEN"
Here's a screenshot of my book at #10 in self-help, near Tim Ferriss' 4HWW, above Tolle's Power of Now, and even above How To Win Friends an Influence People.

 

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[Peakdesire]

Hey Peakdesire! (and also to anyone interested). Here's some stuff I did:

- Wrote two guest posts for higher profile blogs to get my name out and my book (led to increased traffic for blog and probably some downloads) near release date/soon after
- Used BuckBooks as a promo when went to 99 cents (as I will mention later, this was a KEYSTONE in getting to bestseller list)
- Bought a Twitter promo on Fiverr to get tweeted out to multiple accounts, mentioned on a blog, etc. I don't think this was very useful.

Some stats:

- 750-800 free copies of the book were given away.
- BuckBooks SUPREMELY helped get my book out there. If you can, get them to list for you. I credit this for me getting to triple #1 status bestselling in Psychology, Depression, and Self-Help/Success in Canada, and double #1 in Pathologies and Depression, while being in the top #20 of self-help in the US (WHICH IS HUGE!!!!)

I was floored by these results. Sales are slowing down so I am playing around with price, description, and categories.

But overall I am incredibly happy. I hit three micro-goals within two days of each other for earnings which I thought would take me months.

I FIRMLY believe in what I'm doing and that success will happen eventually. I also officially have some passive income.

Next week - start writing next book, alongside some more infrastructure to showcase this one. Idea has already been validated by my blog (lots of traffic and questions), as opposed to this book where I wrote what I wanted to then tried to market it for what people wanted. I will also aim to make it shorter... MOTM is 186 pages. I'd like this one to be around 100, but whatever information needs to come out comes out when I write.

"PICS OR IT DIDN'T HAPPEN"
Here's a screenshot of my book at #10 in self-help, near Tim Ferriss' 4HWW, above Tolle's Power of Now, and even above How To Win Friends an Influence People.

Wow man congratulations! Work finally paying off

I got a few questions.

1. How did you get the spot for a quest post? just an email to the blog owner?

2. Was it hard to get into bookbucks?

3. How long was your kdp free promotion?

4. Did you use any kind of keyword research for your book and if yes, did that effect your book title or subtitle?

5. How much revenue have you made so far from this book, if you want to share it of course.

My book is ready I'm about to launch very soon, I'm so excited

Thanks for inspiration also!

 

[Noam]

Wow man congratulations! Work finally paying off

I got a few questions.

1. How did you get the spot for a quest post? just an email to the blog owner?

2. Was it hard to get into bookbucks?

3. How long was your kdp free promotion?

4. Did you use any kind of keyword research for your book and if yes, did that effect your book title or subtitle?

5. How much revenue have you made so far from this book, if you want to share it of course.

My book is ready I'm about to launch very soon, I'm so excited

Thanks for inspiration also!

1. I had to apply for Lifehack authorship, you have to go through an interview/trial process. I write there monthly. For the other site, HowToBeast, I had collaborated with the owner on another project so I asked him if he'd be open to me writing for him.

2. Nope. Actually Steve from BB contacted me through Fastlane. He was very helpful and supportive (and put up with my changing dates and questions) so I HIGHLY HIGHLY recommend him and BB.

3. 4.5 days. Stopped 0.5 days short to capitalize some sales.

4. Yes. With my 19 mental wastes, I used Google AdWords to find the most commonly searched, which was procrastination and anxiety. Hence why they are in the subtitle. I did not do keyword research for main title, I just brainstormed with friends I trusted and chose what I liked the most. I also strategically chose "Mastery Of The Mind" to pique people's interest in terms of the popular book, Mastery, by Greene.

I also did keyword research for the actual Amazon keywords, thinking what would people looking for this book be thinking about. I used MerchantWords (free version only) and AdWords for that again, combined with Amazon's own keyword tool.

5. Don't feel comfortable sharing that, but I told myself I'd be up on the roof if I made even $100 in one month. I've cleared that, and I've sold 100s of copies.


It motivates me for the next book!

 

[Peakdesire]

1. I had to apply for Lifehack authorship, you have to go through an interview/trial process. I write there monthly. For the other site, HowToBeast, I had collaborated with the owner on another project so I asked him if he'd be open to me writing for him.

2. Nope. Actually Steve from BB contacted me through Fastlane. He was very helpful and supportive (and put up with my changing dates and questions) so I HIGHLY HIGHLY recommend him and BB.

3. 4.5 days. Stopped 0.5 days short to capitalize some sales.

4. Yes. With my 19 mental wastes, I used Google AdWords to find the most commonly searched, which was procrastination and anxiety. Hence why they are in the subtitle. I did not do keyword research for main title, I just brainstormed with friends I trusted and chose what I liked the most. I also strategically chose "Mastery Of The Mind" to pique people's interest in terms of the popular book, Mastery, by Greene.

I also did keyword research for the actual Amazon keywords, thinking what would people looking for this book be thinking about. I used MerchantWords (free version only) and AdWords for that again, combined with Amazon's own keyword tool.

5. Don't feel comfortable sharing that, but I told myself I'd be up on the roof if I made even $100 in one month. I've cleared that, and I've sold 100s of copies.


It motivates me for the next book!

Awesome dude. Thanks a lot for clearing those out.

Could you share Steves fastlaneforum name so I could maybe contact him?

Also, what kind of book are you writing next?

 

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[Noam]

No worries man!

Fastlane considered BB to be advertising so I think they might have booted Steve from the forum. I'm going to PM you his contact info.

Same type, self-improvement/non-fiction, but based on my most popular blog post that I get TONS of questions on. I have to do research to see what's out there, but I don't think there are really well laid out books about the avoider mentality and I think I can provide something useful.

See here:

http://lightwayofthinking.com/avoider-mentality-and-fear-of-intimacy/

 

[KennyJA]

- Used BuckBooks as a promo when went to 99 cents (as I will mention later, this was a KEYSTONE in getting to bestseller list)

- BuckBooks SUPREMELY helped get my book out there. If you can, get them to list for you. I credit this for me getting to triple #1 status bestselling in

Hello Noam!

I'm trying to understand how you used BuckBooks successfully. I have no clue about that site in the first place.

You see, I'm trying to advertise my books and I see that Amazon simply doesn't cut it. I've sold a few, earned through KDP Select but it isn't enough to take it seriously and buy a victory beer over. Keywords are a whole other discussion, I'm still trying to wrap my head around it.

How do you have your book advertised on their site?

Do you need help from the inside/friendship?

What are the steps you use to advertise your books? (Programs/keywords/sites)?

I hope I'm not being too intrusive, I've noticed some questions don't get answered... a BIG Thank You to any helpful response in advance lol

 

[Noam]

Hey Kenny.

Other than a BB promo and asking friends to download/review my book, all the advertising/pushing was done by Amazon and my own KW research, category selection, and copywriting.

That's the point of Amazon - they do the work for you.

I also built up press, as I mention above, by doing some guest posts on sites.

BB e-mails out your book when it is priced at 99 cents to it's LARGE e-mail list, and riding that traffic/seller rating you hopefully get, you can increase the price of your book.

I answered most of your questions above with Peakdesire, but you can Google to find more info about KWs, programs, and how to do Amazon stuff... There are BILLIONS of articles people have detailed step by step how to choose KWs and categories.

Good luck!

 

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[KennyJA]

Fastlane considered BB to be advertising so I think they might have booted Steve from the forum. I'm going to PM you his contact info.

I've set up an Amazon advertising campaign, but I want to put even more effort into this (these little KDP select borrows are somewhat encouraging)...

Do you think I could get into BB too? If I could get his contact info for business? I'm asking in the most groveling way for yours and his kindness here!

 

[Noam]

Haha no worries man, I'm happy to share. PM'd you. Hope it works out!

 

[Noam]

Hey all.

Someone e-mailed me asking some questions about living in SE Asia, and I realized I haven't posted an update here in a while.

I just got back from my first mini-retirement: I took one month off to travel Asia with friends... not something you could do with a traditional job . I got sick from food but still didn't ruin all of my vacation. Some would say "You don't deserve a vacation, you need to work harder", but I say those are the same people saying work 14 hours a day and F*ck that, every one deserves vacation. You decide when you can do it and how long to go for.

Still working hard on the blog. Book brings in a bit of $ but working on turning it into an online course and releasing it through Udemy and my friend's self development site. With a good launch, I should be able to blog full time. I'm reading Jeff Walker's Launch and plan on using that strategy to help me.

Then going to write the next book.

Learned a lot about myself living here, and improving everyday. I work hard but still have time to enjoy myself, contemplate how fortunate I am for the opportunity to make something for myself/live remotely, and just explore.

Planning on releasing the course end of October, actually going to set milestones later today.

Hope all is well with you guys!

Noam

 

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[Peakdesire]

Hey all.

Someone e-mailed me asking some questions about living in SE Asia, and I realized I haven't posted an update here in a while.

I just got back from my first mini-retirement: I took one month off to travel Asia with friends... not something you could do with a traditional job . I got sick from food but still didn't ruin all of my vacation. Some would say "You don't deserve a vacation, you need to work harder", but I say those are the same people saying work 14 hours a day and F*ck that, every one deserves vacation. You decide when you can do it and how long to go for.

Still working hard on the blog. Book brings in a bit of $ but working on turning it into an online course and releasing it through Udemy and my friend's self development site. With a good launch, I should be able to blog full time. I'm reading Jeff Walker's Launch and plan on using that strategy to help me.

Then going to write the next book.

Learned a lot about myself living here, and improving everyday. I work hard but still have time to enjoy myself, contemplate how fortunate I am for the opportunity to make something for myself/live remotely, and just explore.

Planning on releasing the course end of October, actually going to set milestones later today.

Hope all is well with you guys!

Noam

Hey Noam!

Glad to see your making progress!

Keep up the hustle

 

[Noam]

Hey Noam!

Glad to see your making progress!

Keep up the hustle

Thanks man!!