Offering help to other self-publishers

[eagleye101]

Great Post. I'm going to read it again a couple of times because there are some very good diamonds in it. Thanks a lot Chris Osman.

If I may ask,
Can you do us a breakdown of your system-strategy?
Starting from: You have an idea for a new book, what you do next?
You do research? Find a ghostwriter? See competition?
And please include a time frame. Thank you

The reason I am asking is that I have read a lot (really.. a lot) about self publishing and there are million of opinion-strategies that the authors claim they work. But I haven't found some strategy to be optimum. And given this opportunity, it is the only time that I can ask directly so if you can give some specific steps I would appreciate it.

As a side note about me, I have published 3 books.
One that I wrote myself, became best seller for a week and still sells 2-3 books per day even after 3 months from publishing.
The second I gave it to ghostwriter but the quality wasn't that good. In sold total 60items and sells one or two every now and there.
The third is my first attempt on fiction books, but too young to know how it goes.

 

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[KennyJA]

would you like assistance with cover design or writing?

The fic is outsourced...but, i have can give you two of my non-fic if you wish.

 

[EricZ]

@Chris Osman
I've got shit tons of questions for you!
As you can see from my previous post, I'm one of those guys who took the pill and emulated the other authors:
https://www.thefastlaneforum.com/community/threads/a-b-testing-ebook-marketing-methods.58358/
I basically fell flat on my face, but learned like crazy and failed forward.

This is why I swear by the Email list now, and what most book authors don't do but businessmen do all the time = PRODUCT VALIDATION.

So my questions:
1.) As you saw in Mike Shreeves post, he's killing it now in 2015 , but he's doing serials,
do you think it's viable for some beginner to start pushing books out there?
Shreeve also mentions Facebook campaign(?) specific ads ... any idea?

2.)How about non-fiction books and self-help, aren't they totally saturated? Look at "the big guys" Chadler Bolt and Steve Scott,
they whip up their mailing lists for the initial push, and get their book over this front page hurdle (is it around 1,000 ranking?)
Would you explain the different launches for the different genres? (is that possible?)

3.) You're doing children's books?! I thought there was no money there?! I am doing them purely for fun, as you can see by my A/B test, not very lucrative.

4.) I have about 4 books out there, but another 4 are totally anonymous, so I can't do any list building there. Adsense sucks, my blog gets 200+ uniques per day, but that doesn't even make a dent. So I do no propose to anyone to publish anonymously, or do you have other experience?

As you mentioned in your early reply, where the market is going etc. 1.) Offer services to Authors
This is exactly what I'm doing now! I pivoted, and quickly found myself helping authors so much I have no time to publish my own books!
But it's way more rewarding -- filling the need.
Books are not a real need are they? Basically you have to be a rock-star (Stephen King etc.), this goes against MJ's precepts of getting away from an hourly wage and NOT trying to increase your intrinsic value (like a Rock star's or sport celbrity's hourly wage) but make SOMETHING OF VALUE and the higher on the customer's need-totem-pole the better.

The coolest thing of all, one of "my" authors took one of my ready-made templates and wrote a best seller!
So it can still be done , BUT...note: He's French and the French Amazon.FR market is not over saturated yet.
He hit the self-help category and is doing what everyone (well the big guys) were doing about 3 years ago in amazon.com:
http://www.zbooks.co/2015/06/zbooks-star-author-and-success-story.html

OK gonna stop here, this is my favorite topic/forum, so could talk hours, see you in the next post...
E.

P.S. Big update! Guess everyone is ignoring the Gorilla in the room, coupla days ago Amazon reached the EVENT HORIZON and is now CULLING the "push" authors out there with their new pay per page read model (right now just for the lending library , soon for all?)

So I think the days are numbered for people who want to fastlane with serials.

 

[Alan LT]

Hey Chris, I have a quick question.
I had a short ebook that reached #1 in a niche while it was on free promo but once that ended sales didn't really come in at all & I started to lose my spot.

Should I continue to market the after the promo or should I just let it spread through word of mouth?

Also, do you know any ways to promote your book without purchasing ads? I tried posting on other forums & sites but the results weren't tremendous

 

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[Funke]

@Alan LT Do you have reviews on it?

 

[Alan LT]

@Alan LT Do you have reviews on it?

Yeah I got one review & it wasn't good, but I learn from it.
I put a call to action at the end of my books so I can generating a list & reviews

 

[Funke]

You need to get them "manually" if you want to be competetive, organic can take a looong time if the book does not get much traction.

There are different ways, like black hat review swapping, but here is some good advice:
http://kindlepreneur.com/how-to-get-book-reviews-with-no-blog-no-list-and-no-begging/
http://timgrahl.com/hacking-amazon-course/getting-reviews/

 

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[Alan LT]

You need to get them "manually" if you want to be competetive, organic can take a looong time if the book does not get much traction.

There are different ways, like black hat review swapping, but here is some good advice:
http://kindlepreneur.com/how-to-get-book-reviews-with-no-blog-no-list-and-no-begging/
http://timgrahl.com/hacking-amazon-course/getting-reviews/

I appreciate this, I'll get on it
A$AP

 

[Chris Osman]

Eric, I have been away from the Fastlane due to some health issues, please forgive this late response. I am in the process of answering everyone's questions.

@Chris Osman
I've got shit tons of questions for you!
As you can see from my previous post, I'm one of those guys who took the pill and emulated the other authors:
https://www.thefastlaneforum.com/community/threads/a-b-testing-ebook-marketing-methods.58358/
I basically fell flat on my face, but learned like crazy and failed forward.

This is why I swear by the Email list now, and what most book authors don't do but businessmen do all the time = PRODUCT VALIDATION.

So my questions:
1.) As you saw in Mike Shreeves post, he's killing it now in 2015 , but he's doing serials,
do you think it's viable for some beginner to start pushing books out there?
Shreeve also mentions Facebook campaign(?) specific ads ... any idea?

The market is super saturated right now. It's a bubble in the process of bursting, only this bubble has more in common with beanie babies than with the dot com because it's consumers who are holding the bubble. What most people don't understand is that Amazon is selling self-publishing, not books. We are their customers. The fact that consumers will buy some of our stuff is bonus for them. So which beenie babies are you holding on to? Right now those include erotica, genre fiction, and self-help. So everyone is flocking there and selling people services to make it to the number on spot. The fact that so many people are selling get-rich services on Amazon invalidates the idea that this is a fastlane business. The people selling these services are cashing out before the crash. Yes, you can still make this work, just as people can still make t-shirt printing businesses work, but the gold rush is long dead.

2.)How about non-fiction books and self-help, aren't they totally saturated? Look at "the big guys" Chadler Bolt and Steve Scott,
they whip up their mailing lists for the initial push, and get their book over this front page hurdle (is it around 1,000 ranking?)
Would you explain the different launches for the different genres? (is that possible?)

It's not just different genres that need different launches, but each book. I'm learning that each person, each company, each product needs to be advertised in its own way. There is no easy-bake advertising, however, there are some commonalities. Email lists are still the best launch tool and will enable you to be independent of Amazon. Here's the kicker though, Amazon has become hostile to author's creating email lists. They are now banning reviews where the reviewer had a connection to the author; this connection includes paid reviews, family, or fans of the author. BTW- ranking is contextual. 1,000 in site wide is impressive, 1k in category is a joke. (Same goes for being #1)

3.) You're doing children's books?! I thought there was no money there?! I am doing them purely for fun, as you can see by my A/B test, not very lucrative.

You're the second person to say that directly to me and probably the 10th if you count whispers at a party. I'm making very little money right now, but the momentum is still in this direction. Honestly, I'm hoping that the fact it's perceived as non-lucrative will help me because there will be less competition. In reality, I think it is as lucrative as anything else, it's just much, much, harder to succeed in. I have the advantage of being both a writer and an artist (and hopefully a businessman) so my costs are low. I can produce a book for pennies and not worry too much if it flops. Frankly, the majority of self-pub kidlit out there is absolute garbage. So often I'm asked why people's books aren't selling and it's a simple, but heartbreaking "you can't write and your characters look like posed dead dolls."

Also, it's come to my attention that children aren't on Amazon products, they are on Apple's, so that is where I am re-tooling to. And boy, do these tools allow for so much more.


4.) I have about 4 books out there, but another 4 are totally anonymous, so I can't do any list building there. Adsense sucks, my blog gets 200+ uniques per day, but that doesn't even make a dent. So I do no propose to anyone to publish anonymously, or do you have other experience?

I have five pen names plus my real name. I don't advise publishing anon. because people emotionally attach to personalities. I have no experience with adsense, but I have heard that it too isn't what it used to be. 200+ uniques per day is not much when you compare it to the big guys, so perhaps work on getting better content to drive people there? Don't know, not my area. :/


As you mentioned in your early reply, where the market is going etc. 1.) Offer services to Authors
This is exactly what I'm doing now! I pivoted, and quickly found myself helping authors so much I have no time to publish my own books!
But it's way more rewarding -- filling the need.
Books are not a real need are they? Basically you have to be a rock-star (Stephen King etc.), this goes against MJ's precepts of getting away from an hourly wage and NOT trying to increase your intrinsic value (like a Rock star's or sport celbrity's hourly wage) but make SOMETHING OF VALUE and the higher on the customer's need-totem-pole the better.

The coolest thing of all, one of "my" authors took one of my ready-made templates and wrote a best seller!
So it can still be done , BUT...note: He's French and the French Amazon.FR market is not over saturated yet.
He hit the self-help category and is doing what everyone (well the big guys) were doing about 3 years ago in amazon.com:
http://www.zbooks.co/2015/06/zbooks-star-author-and-success-story.html

OK gonna stop here, this is my favorite topic/forum, so could talk hours, see you in the next post...
E.

P.S. Big update! Guess everyone is ignoring the Gorilla in the room, coupla days ago Amazon reached the EVENT HORIZON and is now CULLING the "push" authors out there with their new pay per page read model (right now just for the lending library , soon for all?)

Yes, they are conducting a great purge. My fear is that they are not targeting the spammers, but rather targeting successful indie authors. This is cage rattling to show who is in charge.

So I think the days are numbered for people who want to fastlane with serials.
View attachment 9995

 

[Chris Osman]

*Sorry for the late response, I have been dealing with health issues. Thank you for understanding

1) I don't have a system/ strategy in place other than the one that is constantly shifting, experimented with, and revised. This has been five years of "playing it by ear" and from what I understand, this is similar to how most businesses get going. (MJ railed at length against business plans, but perhaps I am misguided here.)

Your question makes me want to write out what I am doing, which I will, but currently I have to continue working on my next book and preparing for a conference and a class I'm teaching.

If I may be blunt, you may suffer from over-planning due to a fear of execution. You want things to go right, so you want to select the right path, but there might not be a correct path, at least not one you can see yet. Even if you follow a perfect program from a successful author, you will not see the same results because A) the time frame is different, things have changed in the time between their success and you starting out and B) By virtue of you being a different person, you cannot execute it the same as how they did it.

When I moved out to LA I became a page at Paramount because I studied for a long time and found that that was the path to get inside the studio. I figured that because books, mentors, and consultants had told me so. But when I got the job, and worked as hard as I could, I discovered the truth that no one could tell me because things had changed. Pages are no longer entry level, they are essentially cheap tour guides. This had changed just three years prior. Who could know?

Amazon could die tomorrow, what would you do? Would their system collapse?


2)Starting from: You have an idea for a new book, what you do next?

I develop the idea. I have two categories for books: marketable and personal. I try to pick ideas that bridge both but that usually doesn't work. You can product test and category search out the a$$ for non-fiction, but with fiction you have to parse a bit with your gut and heart. I don't do keyword research until I go to publish the book. Again though, perhaps this is why I am currently struggling. I will check competition to see what's popular (but I know what is because I regularly check bookshelves.) Whatever your genre, you should be familiar with it. Enough that you could have a conversation with someone important in the field.

As for time frame, that too is ambiguous. I tend to put out a book every three weeks. I am currently working on four projects: a simple monster book with 7 illustrations, a remake of a "lot" (pulled) book for iBook, a very scary animated iBook, and a personal piece that will be my second middle-grade novel (lovingly called "Poop") I have release dates in my head but adjust as necessary. I don;t know when the tomatoes will be ripe, but I can tell you it will be before the fall.

I use ghost writers for my Monsters A to Z series, but have not been impressed with them. Many people think they can write, very few can. I have done so much re-writing that I wonder what the point is. Another bizarre fact is that the more I pay for the stories, the worse the writers I get. People way overvalue themselves, that's another Fastlane angle to exploit, btw.

Again, Amazon isn't selling books, they are selling self-publishing.

I don't know if this helps and I apologize for not giving you the answers that you want, but please, wherever you are, start doing something. Start walking towards your goals. No one can give you a roadmap, just some cautionary tales.

Great Post. I'm going to read it again a couple of times because there are some very good diamonds in it. Thanks a lot Chris Osman.

If I may ask,
Can you do us a breakdown of your system-strategy?
Starting from: You have an idea for a new book, what you do next?
You do research? Find a ghostwriter? See competition?
And please include a time frame. Thank you

The reason I am asking is that I have read a lot (really.. a lot) about self publishing and there are million of opinion-strategies that the authors claim they work. But I haven't found some strategy to be optimum. And given this opportunity, it is the only time that I can ask directly so if you can give some specific steps I would appreciate it.

As a side note about me, I have published 3 books.
One that I wrote myself, became best seller for a week and still sells 2-3 books per day even after 3 months from publishing.
The second I gave it to ghostwriter but the quality wasn't that good. In sold total 60items and sells one or two every now and there.
The third is my first attempt on fiction books, but too young to know how it goes.

 

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[EricZ]

Eric, I have been away from the Fastlane due to some health issues, please forgive this late response. I am in the process of answering everyone's questions.

No problem! Glad to see you back!

Brgs
E.

 

[Kevin Peter]

Hello,

I'm new to the Fast Lane Forum and I thought it would be nice to offer help in my expertise. I have been living off of creating content for the Kindle for over four years now and have plenty of advice. So if you need cover help, writing help, copy help, marketing help, or if you just want to complain about Amazon, let me know.

Thanks!
Chris

Chris, do you have a network where you can spread the blurb you write?
I might have an opportunity to review one of the cloud based product, write about it and spread it across.
Do you take up such challenges?