It was clear that David is a driven man and I think everyone was wowed by what he's achieved. It has certainly put a rocket up me!
David sent us some notes after the session and they're reproduced below.
Notes for indie authors
If you want to be
really strategic about writing before you write your book: Write to
market – Easier to market a book if it is targeted at a specific
market rather than a mish/mash of genres. Obviously this is personal
choice but if you want the biggest chance of earning, then doing
research into the genre/subgenre you want to write in will pay off.
What are common tropes? What are the best-selling books in the
genre/subgenre do? Etc. This doesn’t mean you have to target the
biggest audience. Targeting a niche audience can be very successful
as long as you write what they want to read. (e.g. romance is a huge,
highly competitive market so drilling down a bit into subgenres and
writing something that those audiences love could be the best way to
go).
Have your book
edited and proofed
This goes without
saying, doesn’t need any further explanation. Employ professionals
and you’ll get a professional job. Don’t just ask your mate to do
it …
Blurb
Make sure your
blurb is catchy and appropriate – this will probably require some
research because people who can write novels, can’t necessarily
write short, snappy copy (especially not about their own books, which
they may know too well). Look at top 100 in your genre and read their
blurb, ask for feedback on relevant author Facebook groups – a
neutral observer will be able to tell you if your blurb is enticing
and makes them want to find out more about your book (and if not, why
not). It’s something that writers often overlook or misjudge (e.g.
it’s not about giving a synopsis of what your book’s about, it’s
about creating suspense, intrigue, curiosity that makes potential
readers want to find out more). Bryan Cohen (who runs the Author Ad
School for indie authors) has written a book on writing blurbs. How
to Write a Sizzling Synopsis: A Step-by-Step System for Enticing New
Readers, Selling More Fiction, and Making Your Books Sound Good. I
haven’t read this though but he and his team know a lot about
writing blurbs.
Covers
Make sure you
have a professional looking cover: Don’t do your own cover unless
you are REALLY good at Photoshop/graphic design. You can usually spot
a homemade cover from a mile off and they don’t look good. Back in
the early days of self publishing, readers may have been drawn by
homespun covers as it indicated something different from trad
published books. That doesn’t work nowadays. You only have a couple
of seconds to attract a reader’s attention. They are scrolling
through Amazon and you only have a very short space of time to grab
their attention. And you have to do this with a professional-looking
cover that fits in with your genre. You don’t have to spend
hundreds of £s to do this. There are websites out there that do very
cost-effective covers e.g. getcovers.com, you can get an ebook cover
for as little as $10, ebook and print cover for as little as $20
(there are varying price packages with different service levels). Or
100covers.com, their packages start from $100. If you have more money
to spend, then you can look at more specialist design agencies e.g.
www.derangeddoctordesign.com
There are lots of agencies and freelance designers out there, so
makes sense to do your research, ask for recommendations in online
forums etc. You can also look inside the front covers of best-selling
books in your genre and see if the author has credited the
designer/artist and contact them. But make sure you do this good time
and don’t leave to the last minute as most agencies and designers
will have lead times.
BUT you do have
to do research on your covers – your cover has to fit seamlessly
into your genre. It has to look like all the others in the top 100.
This is because readers judge books by their covers. They want to
know that your book tells the kind of story they want to read. So if
it looks like the stuff they like, they are more likely to click on
it. This means you have to look at the following factors that are
most common in the top 100 books in your genre:
What images are
used, how big are they (what 5-age of the cover do they take up)
What are the
dominant colours used in the images
Type, colour and
size of font (for the title and the author name)
Where is the
title positioned?
Where is the
author name positioned?
When looking at
the top 100 in your genre on Amazon, drill down into your specific
subgenre. You can use the menu in Amazon or just Google the relevant
e.g. ‘best seller paranormal werewolves shifter romance amazon uk’.
When looking at top 100 make sure you discount any non-relevant books
e.g. Amazon crime fiction in the US used to contain loads of dark
mafia romance books (lots of broody, bare-chested males draped in
scantily clad women), which isn’t what you want on a crime fiction
book. Being as accurate as possible helps – e.g. drill down to
police procedurals, tradition detective stories, scandi noir, cosy
culinary etc. whatever genre fits your book best.
The more
information you can provide a book cover designer with, the easier
the design process will be (with fewer revisions necessary).
Join good online
forums – there are lots of Facebook groups for authors. Lots of
them are free. They are great places to post cover and blurb drafts
and ask for feedback. Be open to constructive criticism – try not
to be offended if your blurb or cover is critiqued.
Advertising:
Amazon and
Facebook ads are the most common platforms for advertising. Both can
be very effective if done right. I would recommend doing some
research here as they can be a bit overwhelming and confusing. There
are various courses and books out there that teach indie authors how
to navigate Amazon and Facebook ads. Mark Dawson’s Self Publishing
courses are probably among the best known? They’re fairly all
encompassing and cover most aspects of writing and self publishing.
It is costly, though. I haven’t done much of his stuff so can’t
say much either way, but could be interesting for people to look at.
Amazon ads
The Author Ad
School’s Selling for Authors course is another well-known course.
It is also a paid-for course that covers most aspects of marketing
and advertising a book via amazon (does not cover Facebook ads). They
run a free 5-day Author Ad Challenge on Facebook several times
a year. It’s a good free introduction to Amazon ads and guides you
to creating your first amazon ads. Also something that they might
want to check out. The next one will be in January (search for The
5-Day Author Ad Profit Challenge on Facebook and join
the group). The instructor, Bryan Cohen has also written a book:
Self-Publishing with Amazon Ads: The Author's Guide to Lower Costs,
Higher Royalties, and Greater Peace of Mind. I haven’t read this
though.
Facebook ads
For those on a
limited budget, a good, no-nonsense book on how to set up and run
your first Facebook Ads is: Help! My Facebook Ads Suck: Second
Edition by Mall and Jil Cooper. £7.99 Kindle and £8.99 paperback.
It’s an easy-to-follow, step-by-step book, and I found it very
useful. I’d suggest getting the paperback as it’s easier to flick
backwards and forwards through while setting up ads. Mal and Jil also
run a facebook page called The Writing Wives Ads & Marketing
Group (search in FB) and have a regular live chat called Lunch with
Mal where Mal talks about Facebook ads and trends in FB advertising.
They also run a free 5-Day Facebook Ads Challenge Group periodically
in the year, but I’m not sure when the next is (search 5-Day
Facebook Ads Challenge Group in Facebook)
One thing to note
is that whereas it can be a challenge to get amazon to spend your
budget on ads but Facebook will burn through your money in no time at
all. So be careful there. Always set yourself a budget you can afford
and keep an eye on ad performance and how much you’re spending.
Some people find that one platform works better for them than
another. E.g. Facebook didn’t seem to be having a big impact on
sales, so I stopped the ads there.
It definitely
helps to take a strategic approach here – testing different types
of ads for x amount of time, stopping ones that don’t work and
spending more on ads that do work… it pays to be strategic and
analytical here (something that I am not!)
General rule of
thumb = only run ads to your first in series (if you write a series).
You can run time-limited campaigns to new releases, but you want to
funnel
Newsletters:
It’s generally
regarded as good practice to send out regular newsletters to your
readers. This is because it gives you a direct means of communicating
with your ‘superfans’. Even if you have an active author Facebook
page where you engage with fans, if your account get blocked by
Facebook, or if anything should happen to Facebook, then you lose
access to these people. A mailing list is yours and yours alone.
There are lots of
different email providers out there, but as far as I know, Mailerlite
is the best one (it’s not perfect, but better than a lot of
others). There is a free version (without customer support) that you
can use until you reach a certain number of subscribers. Once you
exceed 1000 subscribers, you have to switch to a paid-for account.
To get people to
sign up for your newsletter, you will need a cookie, e.g. a free
short story related to your book (or the world in which your books
are set). There are lots of different things you can offer here. A
useful resource for creating newsletters is the book Newsletter
Ninja: How to Become an Author Mailing List Expert by Tammi L.
Labrecque. It’s another no-nonsense, easy-to-follow guide on all
things newslettery. She has also done a follow-up called: Newsletter
Ninja 2: If You Give a Reader a Cookie: Supercharge Your Author
Mailing List With the Perfect Reader Magnet, which I found useful.
She also runs a Facebook page called Newsletter Ninja: Author Think
Tank, where you can post questions.
General
comments:
You can spend A
LOT of money on really in-depth courses that will teach you every
aspect of self publishing from planning a book for a specific genre
to marketing it to readers. But if you’re on a budget, there are
also plenty of free resources out there. Lots and lots of podcasts,
for example Dave Chesson at kidlepreneur.com., The Self Publishing
Show Podcast with Mark Dawson, Sell More Books Show with Bryan Cohen
and H. Claire Taylor. Free courses and resources (5-day challenges on
Facebook). I would suggest that people looks at the low-cost of free
stuff before spending £100s or even £1000s on courses. There is so
much you can learn from other authors and industry experts for free.
Useful
resources for indie authors
This is by no
means a definitive list. These resources may not even be the best
options out there for your genre but they are all resources I have
either used myself or heard good things about from other authors and
industry experts.
Blurbs
Book: How to
Write a Sizzling Synopsis: A Step-by-Step System for Enticing New
Readers, Selling More Fiction, and Making Your Books Sound Good by
Bryan Cohen
Cover design
Low cost
options:
www.getcovers.com
www.100covers.com
Advertising
Amazon ads and
self publishing in general
Free:
The 5-Day
Author Ad Profit Challenge on Facebook run by Bryan Cohen
(the next course starts in January)
Paid-for:
https://selling-for-authors.teachable.com/p/amazon-ads-made-easy
(Bryan Cohen)
Facebook ads
Book: Help! My
Facebook Ads Suck: Second Edition by Mall and Jil Cooper.
Facebook
groups:
The Writing Wives
Ads & Marketing Group
5-Day Facebook
Ads Challenge Group
Amazon and
Facebook ads (and all aspects of self publishing)
Mark Dawson’s
Self-Publishing Formula
https://selfpublishingformula.com/
Newsletters:
Free email
service provider:
www.mailerlite.com
Book: Newsletter
Ninja: How to Become an Author Mailing List Expert by Tammi L.
Labrecque
Book: Newsletter
Ninja 2: If You Give a Reader a Cookie: Supercharge Your Author
Mailing List With the Perfect Reader Magnet
Facebook group:
Newsletter Ninja: Author Think Tank
Self
publishing in general:
Dave Chesson –
not read much of his stuff but he’s highly respected in the indie
author community and offers a lot of free resources (and a podcast)
on his website. Worth checking out.
https://kindlepreneur.com/
Podcasts:
The Book
Marketing Show with Dave Chesson
The Self
Publishing Show Podcast with Mark Dawson
SELL MORE BOOKS
SHOW with Bryan Cohen and H. Claire Taylor
