Offering help to other self-publishers

[Chris Osman]

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

 

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[doncruz]

Hi Chris Welcome to the forum.
I started this year, so far is slow going, but the more I learn about it, the more I want to make it work.Im in the non fiction side of this.
My question is, how to do marketing effectively?

 

[Chris Osman]

Hi Chris Welcome to the forum.
I started this year, so far is slow going, but the more I learn about it, the more I want to make it work.Im in the non fiction side of this.
My question is, how to do marketing effectively?

Marketing is one of those nebulous questions with lengthy answers. I'll cut to the chase: book marketing is about building an email list, providing value, and being seen where your audience collects.

DO NOT PURCHASE ADS- They have terrible return and click through rate. Only purchase them if you are trying to seed recommendation engines, such as Amazon's.

Find out who your audience is first (it may not be who you assume it is.) Once you have that, research where they congregate. Once you have that, find out what they need and try to help them. After you have provided value, let them know you have books available.

 

[EricZ]

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

That's awesome!
I would really like to hear your advice on launching a book to KDP.
Just did one a few weeks ago and did the 5 day free option and basically fell flat on my face. (Nothing new- fail forward right!?)

Also do you have experience with facebook ads? They seem to be the rage today, but wanted to know the specifics before I dive in.

There are soooo many success stories, but when you try to replicate them, well, the results have room for improvement to say the least.

This guy's results with FB ads are phenomenal:
http://www.mikeshreeve.com/sell-978-fiction-ebooks-per-day-complete-guide/

Brgs
Eric
(you can check out my humble platform at zbooks.co)

p.s. there are some kick-a$$ authors here already, check out Charnell, Aimee, Chickenhawk, Giroud, to name a few.

 

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[KennyJA]

Hi,

I appreciate you coming here and offering advice, not many people give free stuff without a catch to it.

My question is, are ads really that worthless in your opinion? Because another successful author (mike shreeve) said it's an absolute must for authors. What do you have to say about that? It's confusing.

This guy's results with FB ads are phenomenal:
http://www.mikeshreeve.com/sell-978-fiction-ebooks-per-day-complete-guide/

Here's what I'm talking about.

 

[Chris Osman]

That's awesome!
I would really like to hear your advice on launching a book to KDP.
Just did one a few weeks ago and did the 5 day free option and basically fell flat on my face. (Nothing new- fail forward right!?)

Also do you have experience with facebook ads? They seem to be the rage today, but wanted to know the specifics before I dive in.

There are soooo many success stories, but when you try to replicate them, well, the results have room for improvement to say the least.

This guy's results with FB ads are phenomenal:
http://www.mikeshreeve.com/sell-978-fiction-ebooks-per-day-complete-guide/

Brgs
Eric
(you can check out my humble platform at zbooks.co)

p.s. there are some kick-a$$ authors here already, check out Charnell, Aimee, Chickenhawk, Giroud, to name a few.

Hey Eric,

KDP free days are not what they used to be. You need to use them to get the word out about your brand and that's about it. Giveaways no longer translate to rankings in paid (in fact the ranking is wiped when the switch occurs.) Post your book to reddit free groups, free facebook groups, and consider using an emailing service such as BookBub. (here is a good resource list )

I personally use KDP free days as a way to test market a book. You can safely assume that the book will earn between 1-5% in sales from the total number of giveaways (23,000 giveaways = 230 sales) If your giveaways are low, work on the fundamentals (copy, cover, title, content, keywords.)

Amazon's algorithms now actively punish giveaways because they want to encourage customers to purchase books. They created their own monster with the initial free push and now KU is an attempt to monetize that. But KU is causing a whole different breed of problems.

As for FaceBook ads, most of the people you see "crushing it" are selling hi-ticket, low-conversion, products. We're talking $3,000 online courses with a click through rate of ~0.10% With that kind of profit, you can blow $300 in ads and have only one sale and call it a monstrous success. Books are high volume, low margin, so you have to use tactics that generate buzz without too much overhead. Even a spectacular CPC rate of $0.03 with a conversion of %30 would be a losing proposition for an eBook. Advertise only to game ranking, knowing that in the short term you will spend a ton more money than you make. (Source, I've heavily tested Facebook ads and Amazon ads with tepid results, Google ads posed too many issues and require further testing.) Again, this is my experience with FB ads and I'm open to being wrong. (I'm going to spend the afternoon reading the article you linked to and seeing if I can duplicate results. First blush, the guy writes like he is selling something. If you give away 1mil books you will be on GMA and have publishing contract. 900+ sales in one day will put you in the AMZ top ten and stick you there for two weeks. Lionsgate would be calling for the film rights.)

Also thank you for letting me know about the other authors. I'm %75 done with the Fastlane book and fear that I've been hitchhiking the past four years. Ah well, here's to education.

 

[Chris Osman]

Hi,

I appreciate you coming here and offering advice, not many people give free stuff without a catch to it.

My question is, are ads really that worthless in your opinion? Because another successful author (mike shreeve) said it's an absolute must for authors. What do you have to say about that? It's confusing.
Here's what I'm talking about.

It's confusing because you are hearing different experiences from different times in the past. An author three years ago would have done a giveaway, given 2K copies away, and enjoyed weeks of sustained sales off of the promotion. An author this year would do a promotion, give aways ten copies, and see no sales or review. The people chortling the success of the platform are the winners from years past who have built a fanbase and are now moving into other revenue streams to generate income (ie, they're selling you on their past successful strategies.) A modern sales strategy, and by that I mean this month because the industry changes so fast, is built upon offering value in another area and transferring that userbase to the eBook market. Books are no longer the end goal of a sales funnel, but rather a portion of the total platform. MJ doesn't live off of the Fastlane book, but it is the crown jewel in his Fastlane empire.

PS- going to check out the link that you posted and test out the method. First blush, the guy is selling a lot of sizzle.

Thanks
Chris

 

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[KennyJA]

It's confusing because you are hearing different experiences from different times in the past. An author three years ago would have done a giveaway, given 2K copies away, and enjoyed weeks of sustained sales off of the promotion. An author this year would do a promotion, give aways ten copies, and see no sales or review. The people chortling the success of the platform are the winners from years past who have built a fanbase and are now moving into other revenue streams to generate income (ie, they're selling you on their past successful strategies.) A modern sales strategy, and by that I mean this month because the industry changes so fast, is built upon offering value in another area and transferring that userbase to the eBook market. Books are no longer the end goal of a sales funnel, but rather a portion of the total platform. MJ doesn't live off of the Fastlane book, but it is the crown jewel in his Fastlane empire.

PS- going to check out the link that you posted and test out the method. First blush, the guy is selling a lot of sizzle.

Thanks
Chris

Damn, talk about my deepest fears coming true. So you think people like me have little to no chance? I started in march and I have 6 books out (3 among them a non-fic series).

Where do you see the ebook market headed towards? I think these months must be the absolute worst in history, or maybe it's just me.

 

[Chris Osman]

Damn, talk about my deepest fears coming true. So you think people like me have little to no chance? I started in march and I have 6 books out (3 among them a non-fic series).

Where do you see the ebook market headed towards? I think these months must be the absolute worst in history, or maybe it's just me.

It's good to be afraid, it means there's a dragon to kill.

My revenue has been abysmal as of late, thus the reason I turned to the Fastlane. What I have learned just from reading the book is that I have been hitchhiking this entire time. My goal shouldn't have been to profit off of Amazon, it should have been to become Amazon. MJ said that if you use another companie's system to make money then you are subservient to their whims, and boy was he correct. Indie authors are dropping like flies right now because Amazon is done with them. The book market is the most congested of roads right now. The barrier to entry is virtually nonexistent (you could literally take this post, convert it to a word document, and have it published on Kindle in 20 minutes) so everyone is doing it. Add in the massive success stories that Amazon loves to promote and you have a huge bubble.

But it's not a bubble like we've seen before. See, Amazon isn't selling books, they're selling independent authorship. They have successfully shifted all of the burden of the sale from the distributor to the manufacturer. If your book doesn't sell, they aren't affected in the least, but you are. If Kindle Unlimited makes a ton on money, you won't see a cent above what they offer you. Amazon is making thousands of tiny bets every day. If they lose, and your book is garbage, they've lost nothing but your time. If the book is a hit, then they take most of the profit (and they will of course tell everyone about the hit.) It's beautiful, actually, and has never been accomplished in the history of business on such a grand scale. Here's my question though, when all of these writers realize that the game is rigged against them, what's going to happen? It's one thing to say "all is fair in business" with another company, but do you think the general public will swallow that pill? The new KU payout plan is a test of just that and I think a lot of authors are in for a rude awakening.

So yeah, get into eBooks, but know what it is. Personally, I'm looking to build a pyramid of my own.

 

[GuestUser116]

What do you do with a title that was selling great for a while and now slowing down and making low/decent sales?

 

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[Chris Osman]

What do you do with a title that was selling great for a while and now slowing down and making low/decent sales?

I have many titles that this has happened to. (I'm assuming that your book is on Amazon, if you have a wider net this is still relevant.)

First, the install base for Kindle has gone down while the competition has gone up. Amazon has moved on to promoting Prime television and that Echo thing and no longer touts Kindle outside of the sporadic device refresh. So your book may be doing the best it can do, given the customer base.

Some things you could try would be:

1. Cover refresh.
2. New edition.
3. Copy revising.
4. Write a sequel.
5. Write another book that relates to the first.
6. Get guest spots with a high level influencers.
7. Do a blog tour.
8. Create a system that links to the book, such as a speaking engagement that promotes the book as the token product.
9. Use a free book promotion, kindle countdown, or price reduction.
10. Get the book listed with BookBub or another emailing service.

Amazon's algorithms calculate age. So a new book that sells five copies will be recommended over an old book that sells ten.

 

[KennyJA]

Do you predict a rise in sales after summer? I've read summer time is pretty bad for sales. Or is that just BS?

 

[Chris Osman]

Do you predict a rise in sales after summer? I've read summer time is pretty bad for sales. Or is that just BS?

It depends on the market. Erotica and romance spike in the summer while children's books fall. Self-help books are pretty even. I think that the whole seasonal mindset is pre-internet and ignores how "at our fingertips" everything is anymore. With films you are starting to see summer blockbusters encroach into January and October (Videogames too.) This reflects a world economic outlook as the seasons as we know it only apply to America (even then, global warming :/ ) I certainly would not release a Christmas book in July, but other than those fringe cases I do not pay attention to retail trends. One exception is with holidays: never release a book on a holiday, major or minor, you just cannot get attention for it, even among your fans. You want your book to be an event.

As for Amazon's "season" I can't see the market changing for the positive without some major shift happening. It's too crowded, choked by policy, and ripe for exploitation. The only revenue increase would be seen if there is a mass exodus of authors leaving the platform. The great "Mary Sue" migration the old oracle predicted. This would of course only happen once the gold rush stories are replaced with depressing warnings. What happens when everyone who wanted to write their novel does.

 

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[doncruz]

So, what's a good strategy?
I know that with every problem there are opportunities, are there any you see?

 

[Chris Osman]

So, what's a good strategy?
I know that with every problem there are opportunities, are there any you see?

1. Selling services to authors.
2. Creating your own sales platform to compete with Amazon.
3. Finding underserved book niches.
4. Expanding content to other platforms.
5. Getting a ton of press by being the author to "take down Goliath."
6. Becoming a thought leader in your industry/niche.

Just off the top of my head.

 

[Gymjunkie]

As for FaceBook ads, most of the people you see "crushing it" are selling hi-ticket, low-conversion, products. We're talking $3,000 online courses with a click through rate of ~0.10% With that kind of profit, you can blow $300 in ads and have only one sale and call it a monstrous success. Books are high volume, low margin, so you have to use tactics that generate buzz without too much overhead. Even a spectacular CPC rate of $0.03 with a conversion of %30 would be a losing proposition for an eBook. Advertise only to game ranking, knowing that in the short term you will spend a ton more money than you make. (Source, I've heavily tested Facebook ads and Amazon ads with tepid results, Google ads posed too many issues and require further testing.) Again, this is my experience with FB ads and I'm open to being wrong. (I'm going to spend the afternoon reading the article you linked to and seeing if I can duplicate results. First blush, the guy writes like he is selling something. If you give away 1mil books you will be on GMA and have publishing contract. 900+ sales in one day will put you in the AMZ top ten and stick you there for two weeks. Lionsgate would be calling for the film rights.)

What kind of test did you do with FB ads? Please expand there, always interesting to learn. Some succeeded with it, some didn't.

I've seen many succeed with FB ads for Email list building and sales. To succeed there with sales at 99cents or anything lower than $2.99 is almost impossible but I've seen Bundles succeeding and even some books at $3.99.

Also, I'm surprised no one asked (usually someone does) but.. what makes you expert at this? You're publishing what kind of books and what income level? Doesn't have to be exact details but ball park etc. Give us more context, basically.

 

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[KennyJA]

Also, I'm surprised no one asked (usually someone does) but.. what makes you expert at this?

Well he did make a lot of sense. Strategies from these authors who made it big in 2014, 2013, and 2012 aren't working for me or some others here, while new strategies like he listed are currently being done right now. Like what shreeve is doing; I made it big, and so can you bla bla. offer some "amazing" advice and watch people go to your website more often. Free book promos don't do well for a budding indie author like me either.

watching all your threads i followed the same example with bad results, i get 1 sale every other day, today was a borrow on KDP select. a piece of trash as far as I'm concerned now.

 

[Chris Osman]

What kind of test did you do with FB ads? Please expand there, always interesting to learn. Some succeeded with it, some didn't.

I've seen many succeed with FB ads for Email list building and sales. To succeed there with sales at 99cents or anything lower than $2.99 is almost impossible but I've seen Bundles succeeding and even some books at $3.99.

Also, I'm surprised no one asked (usually someone does) but.. what makes you expert at this? You're publishing what kind of books and what income level? Doesn't have to be exact details but ball park etc. Give us more context, basically.

Sorry for the late response, last night power went out to a large portion of Los Angeles and I had one of the weirdest nights in memory. Anywho, here are some basics on me:

1. I write and illustrate children's books.
2. I've been self publishing on Kindle for five years.
3. My peak earning was $15k per month and my valley was $600. (My average royalty for a copy sold is forty cents.)
4. I have sold over 300k copies and given away half a million.
5. I had the #1 book in children's fiction for five months and the #1 in the category for two years.
6. I do everything but editing myself. (And I'm totally surprised that no one has asked for advice on covers, copy, keywords, or market research. Everything has been about advertising so far.)
7. I have published over fifty titles, thirty of which are still available (I'm as harsh as Disney when it comes to my IPs.)

Full disclosure, I have come to the Fastlane because I want to go beyond my creative work. I am both an artist and a businessman and that makes me awkward to both worlds. Right now I am tied to Amazon and the revenue has flattened. I have tried or touched upon pretty much anything you can think of in this business and I offer knowledge not only in my success, but also in my failures. I'm not sugar coating things.

Also, though I do work with several writers and have taught workshops on this subject, I'm not on here trying to sell anything. My goal is to offer value before I ask for help.

As far as Facebook is concerned, you are correct. I don't have the data off hand but, as noted above, my average royalty is forty cents. The best I was able to achieve with FB CPC was $0.05 with a %10 purchase rate (my copy sucked in hindsight.) So basically 50 cents to make 40. The only thing gained was ranking but I couldn't justify the cost at that time. I'm sure you could buy a high rank with a huge adbuy, say $1-5k, but I don't know the return threshold for that. It all depends on if the book sticks or not. Something like Bookbub can offer a high rank with an investment of $150. Also FB is money hungry and these tests happened during its initial push. I'm sure results are less impressive right now. Competition has gone up and organic reach has gone down. (Anecdotally I hear nothing but complaints about FB ads clogging up feeds.) In total I spent well over a grand in testing between three titles. One popular, one middle weight, and one unpopular. The last book provided the most insight because each sale had to come from FB, AMZ wasn't pushing it. That ad made me conclude that people don't come to FB to purchase, the come to socialize. So all you are buying is brand awareness. That's something I'd rather get from fans (whom I lavishly support.)

 

[Gymjunkie]

Sorry for the late response, last night power went out to a large portion of Los Angeles and I had one of the weirdest nights in memory. Anywho, here are some basics on me:

1. I write and illustrate children's books.
2. I've been self publishing on Kindle for five years.
3. My peak earning was $15k per month and my valley was $600. (My average royalty for a copy sold is forty cents.)
4. I have sold over 300k copies and given away half a million.
5. I had the #1 book in children's fiction for five months and the #1 in the category for two years.
6. I do everything but editing myself. (And I'm totally surprised that no one has asked for advice on covers, copy, keywords, or market research. Everything has been about advertising so far.)
7. I have published over fifty titles, thirty of which are still available (I'm as harsh as Disney when it comes to my IPs.)

Full disclosure, I have come to the Fastlane because I want to go beyond my creative work. I am both an artist and a businessman and that makes me awkward to both worlds. Right now I am tied to Amazon and the revenue has flattened. I have tried or touched upon pretty much anything you can think of in this business and I offer knowledge not only in my success, but also in my failures. I'm not sugar coating things.

Also, though I do work with several writers and have taught workshops on this subject, I'm not on here trying to sell anything. My goal is to offer value before I ask for help.

As far as Facebook is concerned, you are correct. I don't have the data off hand but, as noted above, my average royalty is forty cents. The best I was able to achieve with FB CPC was $0.05 with a %10 purchase rate (my copy sucked in hindsight.) So basically 50 cents to make 40. The only thing gained was ranking but I couldn't justify the cost at that time. I'm sure you could buy a high rank with a huge adbuy, say $1-5k, but I don't know the return threshold for that. It all depends on if the book sticks or not. Something like Bookbub can offer a high rank with an investment of $150. Also FB is money hungry and these tests happened during its initial push. I'm sure results are less impressive right now. Competition has gone up and organic reach has gone down. (Anecdotally I hear nothing but complaints about FB ads clogging up feeds.) In total I spent well over a grand in testing between three titles. One popular, one middle weight, and one unpopular. The last book provided the most insight because each sale had to come from FB, AMZ wasn't pushing it. That ad made me conclude that people don't come to FB to purchase, the come to socialize. So all you are buying is brand awareness. That's something I'd rather get from fans (whom I lavishly support.)

Thank you! Good to know!

And as far as FB ads, 50 cents per book sale is good. Why? Because you have a big catalogue of books and can get the money back in back-end sales. Don't know what your average read-through rate is (when one reader buys more and more books to go deeper into your catalogue), but you just need to make 10c on 2nd book sale and you're in the profit. So assuming other royalties would be 40c too, that means you need to have an average reader that buys 1.25 book. If your average reader buys 2 books, that's profit, if your average reader buys 3 books, that's huge.

And that doesn't count in the Amazon rank influence.

So, I see a lot of authors doing BookBub ads or FB ads or anything really, but forgetting that you don't always have to have ROI on your first sale. If you got a catalogue of books, then you can lose money on first sale but then make it back and profit on next ones. That's why email list is huge etc, it extends the funnel and brings follow up sales.

And that's just talking about gaining new readers. With FB ads, you can target your previous readers cheaply and advertise to them through FB Custom Audiences. So you can show them new books, old books etc, another way of extending the funnel.

Now, if all your books are at 40c margin each, that is your biggest problem probably for the stalled income. If you've been bestseller in category etc, you deserve the right to charge bigger and bigger prices as time goes. Plenty of indies do $3.99 books etc. So your funnel starts at cheap books and builds up to more expensive books slowly. That makes single reader worth more and more.

Interesting thing with FB ads complaints.. people love to complain about ads, but do watch them, do read them, and do click on them. My FB ads are pretty good quality and I find myself clicking on them from time to time. Most people are not self-aware so you can't take that anecdotal complaining for sure thing. It's like saying Pop ups on websites suck and don't work.. in reality they work and work well (just 2-2.5x my subscriber rates with it on my site).

Now, not saying it's foolproof method. Depends on book pricing a lot and the strategy author does.

 

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[Gymjunkie]

Well he did make a lot of sense. Strategies from these authors who made it big in 2014, 2013, and 2012 aren't working for me or some others here, while new strategies like he listed are currently being done right now. Like what shreeve is doing; I made it big, and so can you bla bla. offer some "amazing" advice and watch people go to your website more often. Free book promos don't do well for a budding indie author like me either.

watching all your threads i followed the same example with bad results, i get 1 sale every other day, today was a borrow on KDP select. a piece of trash as far as I'm concerned now.

He's also the person who made it big in 2012-2014.. he's been at it for 5 years... heck, all advice from all authors is never 100% current, just for 1st few months.

And he's not really giving different advice from what is common. In fact, I don't see anything new in his advice. Just normal solid advice. Except for everything DIY part, that's crazy waste of time if author is making 15k/month. Outsource the cover design etc cover design upgrade might alone double the sales for some books.. Russell Blake changes his covers once a year and the dude doesn't have to.. If all his books are illustrated then it's different maybe, that could be a bit of an exception.

And if you watched my threads, KDP Select is not the main thing, my post have always been about email list focus and funnel building. One free books is good business, all freebies or 99c books is not.. etc.

 

[KennyJA]

He's also the person who made it big in 2012-2014.. he's been at it for 5 years... heck, all advice from all authors is never 100% current, just for 1st few months.

And he's not really giving different advice from what is common. In fact, I don't see anything new in his advice. Just normal solid advice. Except for everything DIY part, that's crazy waste of time if author is making 15k/month. Outsource the cover design etc cover design upgrade might alone double the sales for some books.. Russell Blake changes his covers once a year and the dude doesn't have to.. If all his books are illustrated then it's different maybe, that could be a bit of an exception.

And if you watched my threads, KDP Select is not the main thing, my post have always been about email list focus and funnel building. One free books is good business, all freebies or 99c books is not.. etc.

Let's not play games by arguing back and forth here. Years ago I suspect you could get away with many things like not having an e-mail list and merely pump out short stories with one being a freebie connected to others that will get you sales, not to mention having a giveaway that will help sales in the future. As of right now I am trying everything including the e-mail list. My results are pretty piss poor right now, FB ads, Amazon ads, fiction, non fic, free books, 99 cent books, etc. etc.

Now I'm not gonna be the schmuck that buys an expensive course from an author who made it big when indie publishing was booming by using past strategies. Get an e-mail list? OK easier said than done...

 

[Gymjunkie]

Let's not play games by arguing back and forth here. Years ago I suspect you could get away with many things like not having an e-mail list and merely pump out short stories with one being a freebie connected to others that will get you sales, not to mention having a giveaway that will help sales in the future. As of right now I am trying everything including the e-mail list. My results are pretty piss poor right now, FB ads, Amazon ads, fiction, non fic, free books, 99 cent books, etc. etc.

Now I'm not gonna be the schmuck that buys an expensive course from an author who made it big when indie publishing was booming by using past strategies. Get an e-mail list? OK easier said than done...

What are you talking about? I don't even get where the course reference comes from? Again, this is common advice.. I myself always advocated email list building and using FB ads to build it up and showed examples. Etc. Few good threads here about it too...

Bad start is common, you're not doing bad.. outliers do great but they are not the standard, just inspiration.

 

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[KennyJA]

What are you talking about? I don't even get where the course reference comes from? Again, this is common advice.. I myself always advocated email list building and using FB ads to build it up and showed examples. Etc. Few good threads here about it too...

Bad start is common, you're not doing bad.. outliers do great but they are not the standard, just inspiration.

I assumed we were talking about advice? then I brought up courses which were basically advice and how-to's

Stuff that he is saying on what to do now is what I don't see being spoken for most successful authors and their strategies past. This is just some of the stuff they said to do:

Funnels.
Keyword Programs.
Publishing 50+ books.
Advertising.
Websites.

These are the common things I find. So far I'm missing something in order to win. What he said is that Amazon indie publishers are taking a nose dive, which is why he's here too! From there I can assume most advice from big name authors who made it big last year won't cut it today. I'm not trying to be defensive or sarcastic or whatever. But I just want to dump the bullshit aside and figure out what works and what doesn't, too many people trying to make a dollar off of those wanting to make a dollar too. If people swear by keyword programs, I'll buy it. If it's buying a promotion from Bookbub, I'll consider it. But results from advice that I have taken has not proved effective.

I'm gonna go back to writing. I'll hit this brick wall for another year and see what I get.

 

[doncruz]

1. I write and illustrate children's books.
2. I've been self publishing on Kindle for five years.
3. My peak earning was $15k per month and my valley was $600. (My average royalty for a copy sold is forty cents.)
4. I have sold over 300k copies and given away half a million.

Hey Chris, this is very impressive,
What's your advice on listbuilding? Is it really that good? Can you provide some specific tools?

 

[Jam Wheel]

It's good to be afraid, it means there's a dragon to kill.

My revenue has been abysmal as of late, thus the reason I turned to the Fastlane. What I have learned just from reading the book is that I have been hitchhiking this entire time. My goal shouldn't have been to profit off of Amazon, it should have been to become Amazon. MJ said that if you use another companie's system to make money then you are subservient to their whims, and boy was he correct. Indie authors are dropping like flies right now because Amazon is done with them. The book market is the most congested of roads right now. The barrier to entry is virtually nonexistent (you could literally take this post, convert it to a word document, and have it published on Kindle in 20 minutes) so everyone is doing it. Add in the massive success stories that Amazon loves to promote and you have a huge bubble.

But it's not a bubble like we've seen before. See, Amazon isn't selling books, they're selling independent authorship. They have successfully shifted all of the burden of the sale from the distributor to the manufacturer. If your book doesn't sell, they aren't affected in the least, but you are. If Kindle Unlimited makes a ton on money, you won't see a cent above what they offer you. Amazon is making thousands of tiny bets every day. If they lose, and your book is garbage, they've lost nothing but your time. If the book is a hit, then they take most of the profit (and they will of course tell everyone about the hit.) It's beautiful, actually, and has never been accomplished in the history of business on such a grand scale. Here's my question though, when all of these writers realize that the game is rigged against them, what's going to happen? It's one thing to say "all is fair in business" with another company, but do you think the general public will swallow that pill? The new KU payout plan is a test of just that and I think a lot of authors are in for a rude awakening.

So yeah, get into eBooks, but know what it is. Personally, I'm looking to build a pyramid of my own.

Absolutely to all of this. I know in the past there has been some debate on this forum and with MJ (maybe in the book?) about if self-pubbing was Fastlane and I think it is considered to be so, but with certain caveats (its been a while since Ive read the book!). I spent months considering tossing my hat into the KDP ring and always held back or it seemed like one thing or another got in the way (new job, moving, moving, travel, illness, etc). I have something written, but I just can't seem to get past to execute. For me it was all about learning to execute anyway, so I guess I was using it for more of a psychological boost, with some cash attached.

What always has given me pause though was the fact that most of the market is concentrated with Amazon and they have proven themselves to be ruthless (I deal with them in a different way for my day job). My time is worth more now than what Amazon is willing to pay with KDP, however, like you, I think there are either periphery models to exploit while all this shakes out OR ways to service parts of the market that clearly have demand that Amazon is willing to forgo for whatever reason (lookin' at the shorts and erotica chunk here). BUt the only way to learn what those are is to get down and dirty yourself with writing a book or two and look for pain points to solve.

Seriously though, something did have to be done and I can see why they did it, but some people foolishly quit jobs over this, thinking they would ride Bezos' generosity for the rest of their lives. They gave too much power away to a corporate entity without protecting themselves through diversification or, as we say, moving up the value chain. I feel bad for them, but there was no way that gravy train was going to continue.

 

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[Chris Osman]

Absolutely to all of this. I know in the past there has been some debate on this forum and with MJ (maybe in the book?) about if self-pubbing was Fastlane and I think it is considered to be so, but with certain caveats (its been a while since Ive read the book!). I spent months considering tossing my hat into the KDP ring and always held back or it seemed like one thing or another got in the way (new job, moving, moving, travel, illness, etc). I have something written, but I just can't seem to get past to execute. For me it was all about learning to execute anyway, so I guess I was using it for more of a psychological boost, with some cash attached.

What always has given me pause though was the fact that most of the market is concentrated with Amazon and they have proven themselves to be ruthless (I deal with them in a different way for my day job). My time is worth more now than what Amazon is willing to pay with KDP, however, like you, I think there are either periphery models to exploit while all this shakes out OR ways to service parts of the market that clearly have demand that Amazon is willing to forgo for whatever reason (lookin' at the shorts and erotica chunk here). BUt the only way to learn what those are is to get down and dirty yourself with writing a book or two and look for pain points to solve.

Seriously though, something did have to be done and I can see why they did it, but some people foolishly quit jobs over this, thinking they would ride Bezos' generosity for the rest of their lives. They gave too much power away to a corporate entity without protecting themselves through diversification or, as we say, moving up the value chain. I feel bad for them, but there was no way that gravy train was going to continue.

You have a solid perspective on this whole situation. They are ruthless, and they have every right to be, but there is a huge gathering of "wantrapaneur" authors out there about to implode and that will make a pyramid scheme collapse look like a diaper change. And that collapse is happening right now. Anywho, I was one of those people that believed this could last forever, however the difference is that I now treat the books, and my life, as a business. Reading MFL has made me realize that there is so much business outside of Amazon, and the illusion they sell is that they are the only game. That's just not true, and if this pattern continues it will be very true.

One issue the MFL brings up is whether I am pursuing a business or a passion and honestly, it's muddled at best. I have produced a lot of content, enough to be called a book spammer, but I have crafted every story and picture with care. I just went at a breakneck speed because Amazon demanded it with their algorithms. So now I have a huge set of specialized skills, business sense, a stable of ip properties, and some fame, and am competing with an oversaturated market crowded with amateur garbage. That right there is why I've come to this forum.

 

[Chris Osman]

Hey Chris, this is very impressive,
What's your advice on listbuilding? Is it really that good? Can you provide some specific tools?

Thank you

I came to list building late, but I agree with all of the hype out there. (Although with so much hype, people are emailing more, so the effectiveness is going down.) Build your list by providing something of value in exchange for their email address. Email addresses are worth about $5 a piece, so you can actually budget for this (don't buy a list.) I give away four books currently for an email address, but I think that's a little much. I can confidently rely on %10 of my list buying a new book. That's not much, but it's something that can scale. I have yet to find a magic bullet, but blog tours and contests have shown the best results. Also I get a lot of word of mouth referrals, which are the best.

 

[Chris Osman]

He's also the person who made it big in 2012-2014.. he's been at it for 5 years... heck, all advice from all authors is never 100% current, just for 1st few months.

And he's not really giving different advice from what is common. In fact, I don't see anything new in his advice. Just normal solid advice. Except for everything DIY part, that's crazy waste of time if author is making 15k/month. Outsource the cover design etc cover design upgrade might alone double the sales for some books.. Russell Blake changes his covers once a year and the dude doesn't have to.. If all his books are illustrated then it's different maybe, that could be a bit of an exception.

And if you watched my threads, KDP Select is not the main thing, my post have always been about email list focus and funnel building. One free books is good business, all freebies or 99c books is not.. etc.

Thanks for the advice in the above thread, I'm going to take another crack at FB ads.

Also thanks for calling this solid advice. The more that I talk to people, the more I realize that this all boils back down to basics. This stuff is hard work. It's a process not an event, just like MJ said, and that's what I've been trying to communicate.

I am an illustrator and enjoy making the covers. About a year ago I started outsourcing writing and have by in large found it atrocious. So I now only hire VAs for research. I'm also considering hiring illustrators but, ugh, that's a brand consideration. Plus there's still this whole mentality that every book makes a ton of money. I had one artist I spoke with at length wanting 10k and %30 gross royalty. I laughed and offered him $0 and %90, just so I could cut him a check for $2.

A shit ton of the success stories are in self-help categories too. Fiction, children's fiction, is a whole different animal.

 

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[Chris Osman]

I assumed we were talking about advice? then I brought up courses which were basically advice and how-to's

Stuff that he is saying on what to do now is what I don't see being spoken for most successful authors and their strategies past. This is just some of the stuff they said to do:

Funnels.
Keyword Programs.
Publishing 50+ books.
Advertising.
Websites.

These are the common things I find. So far I'm missing something in order to win. What he said is that Amazon indie publishers are taking a nose dive, which is why he's here too! From there I can assume most advice from big name authors who made it big last year won't cut it today. I'm not trying to be defensive or sarcastic or whatever. But I just want to dump the bullshit aside and figure out what works and what doesn't, too many people trying to make a dollar off of those wanting to make a dollar too. If people swear by keyword programs, I'll buy it. If it's buying a promotion from Bookbub, I'll consider it. But results from advice that I have taken has not proved effective.

I'm gonna go back to writing. I'll hit this brick wall for another year and see what I get.

William Goldman's overused "Nobody knows anything" applies here. What works for one person will not work for another. You have to get out there and get your hands dirty. I started all of this because I was afraid of agents and rejection. I just wanted to create. Chasing money fails.

Publish your book and try marketing it. Do the opposite of what people are selling. Try something different. BE the guy that all those blog articles are written about. You will fail. Your book will flop. Are you okay with that? Will you keep going after that? Will you change that book until it works or will you write another one? When will you give up? The difference between an entrepeneur and an hourly worker is that we are willing to not get paid. My book sales look just like a movie studio's spread, %20 of the books make %80 of the money. Can I tell which new books will be in the %20? Sort of. But holy crap have I been wrong! I'm also just learning from asking my fans that what I thought they thought I was is totally wrong.

Adjust, move on, keep driving.

Are you driving?

What few people talk about is that most people don't read. Seriously, outside of the internet, how much do people read? We are transitioning to a visual society, so how could you exploit that? I have books in the works without words. They're basically movies, just produced on a smaller scale. Could the same be done with adult books? (Like a comic? But non fiction?) Why not. There's a market, there's an idea.

There's this incredibly competitive, highly congested, field that is dwindling. Add to it this idea that everyone is a writer (and they're just not, I'm sorry) and you have the Kindle store. I read somewhere that 1 in 4 people want to write a novel while 1 in 8 have read a book in the past year. Are you freaking kidding me?

So let's go back to my original offer: would you like assistance with cover design or writing?

 

[Gymjunkie]

Thanks for the advice in the above thread, I'm going to take another crack at FB ads.

Also thanks for calling this solid advice. The more that I talk to people, the more I realize that this all boils back down to basics. This stuff is hard work. It's a process not an event, just like MJ said, and that's what I've been trying to communicate.

I am an illustrator and enjoy making the covers. About a year ago I started outsourcing writing and have by in large found it atrocious. So I now only hire VAs for research. I'm also considering hiring illustrators but, ugh, that's a brand consideration. Plus there's still this whole mentality that every book makes a ton of money. I had one artist I spoke with at length wanting 10k and %30 gross royalty. I laughed and offered him $0 and %90, just so I could cut him a check for $2.

A shit ton of the success stories are in self-help categories too. Fiction, children's fiction, is a whole different animal.

It really does boil down to the basic!

I think you're sitting on nice potential there, if you can make that funnel and then test ads again, I think can be big! And keep us updated if you will on how it goes!

Branding matters so in this case DYI works.. one of rare rare cases..