The Fast Path to Getting Published
Post on 20-May-2015
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The fast (& profitable) path to publishing
Brian Schwartz • www.50interviews.combrian@50interviews.com • 970-215-1078
www.50interviews.com
Agenda short break from 7:15-7:20
• Uncover your true unique niche• The movie exercise• Exercise : 4-UP• Still stuck? Try 8-UP!• Make it impersonal / A foundation of community• An Obligation• Your online identity / Your future self• From pixels-to-print / The fast path to publishing• Author workflow / The 4 phases of a writer• An author’s marketing mindset• Generating traffic
www.50interviews.com
• Converting Traffic to Leads• Offering relevant content• Titles & Taglines• Covers & Banners• eBook Distribution / Multiple routes to monetization• Fast path to e-publishing• Fast path to print publishing• Getting your blog on Kindle• Getting your book on Kindle• More channels to sell your eBook• From blogger to author (Emulate to Learn Segment):• Leo Babautu / ZenHabits blog
Agenda short break from 7:15-7:20
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• From blogger to author (Emulate to Learn Segment):• Josh Kaufman / Personal MBA.com• Scott Belsky / ActionMethod.com• Brian Halligan & Dharmesh Shah/ Hubspot.com &
Onstartup.com • Laura Bradenburg /bridging-the-gap.com• Impact Lab / Impactlab.com• Twitter to best selling author• wine.about.com• Millionaire Mommy Next Door
Agenda short break from 7:15-7:20
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• New age journalists• Building it all on Google & doing it all for free!• Publishing 1 tweet-at-a-time• Publishing 1 tweet-at-a-time ( Justin Halpern Model )• Ideas to action• Exploring New Markets
Agenda short break from 7:15-7:20
“What looks complex is really just the accumulation of
simple ideas added over time.”
-Gary Keller
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Uncover your true unique niche
• The more you share, the more powerful it becomes.• It’s worth more to you than a million bucks. • You’d be doing it whether or not you were getting
paid to do it.• When you are doing it, you lose track of time. • It feels like an addiction (you truly miss it when it’s
not there).• You wake up early to do it before anything else and it
gives you energy, it doesn’t drain you.• You notice things in the world others don’t.
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The movie exerciseYour unique view of the world
• Your favorite movie, TV show, or play• Your favorite character• The challenges that character was facing or
purpose of their role:• The characteristics, distinctions, and attributes
that character exhibited, which you most admired?
• Identify those you admire (& who probably share traits with the movie character).
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Exercise : 4-UP
What part of your current job would you do, even if you
weren’t paid to do it?
What would YOU be doing if money wasn’t
a factor?
When doing this, you lose track of time.
What’s the first thing you go
back to after being gone for an extended period of time (ie.
vacation)
• It gives you energy when you do it, and you could do it for hours on end.• When it’s not present, you miss it and it might even feel like it’s an addiction.
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Still stuck? Try 8-UP
What magazines do you subscribe to? What blogs do you read?
Who’s job do you most admire? Your favorite TV shows
What did you collect as a kid? What do you like to do on the weekends?
What events are you willing you to pay to attend?
Where do you vacation/retreat most often? What do you do when you get
there?
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Make it impersonalA foundation of community
• It’s not about you.• You are serving a purpose greater than
yourself and others know it.• Teachers and pastors are great examples.• Others join you despite the money.• It gives you the strength to overcome
adversity.• It’s more exciting to see the benefit to others
(It’s all about the IMPACT you can have).
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An Obligation
“There is vitality, life force, energy that is translated through you into action, and because there is only one of you, your expression is unique. If you block it, it will never exist through any other medium and be lost forever. It is not your business to determine how good or valuable it compares with other expressions, it is your business to keep the channel open.”
- Martha Graham
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Your online identityYour future self
• Make yourself easy to find and connect with– Facebook / Linked In / Twitter
• Sharing your passion, showcasing your expertise, & inviting others to join you!– YouTube & Podcasting– Wordpress & a personal URL– Squidoo & Hub Pages– Examiner.com & About.com
Focus your touch points.
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From pixels-to-printThe fast path to publishing
• First create your content online. Blog, Linked In, Facebook, Twitter, etc.
• Second, create a manifesto or downloadable ebook (does anybody else care?)
*If nobody is willing to download your book for free, what makes you think you will be able to get them to pay for it?
• Third, create your ebook for sale. The reasons to create an ebook instead of print have to do with freedom of endless revisions and ease of rapid distribution.
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Author workflowThe 4 phases of a writer
Research
Writing
Editing
Promoting
• Speaking / Teaching• Social Media• Traditional Media• Workshops• Webinars
• Interviews• Reading• Classes / Workshops• Conferences• Internet (podcasts, etc.)
• Blogging• Editorials• Guest articles• White papers /
Manifestos• Commenting
• Publishing• Revising• Presentations• Creating Class
Materials• Reorganizing ideas
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Constant & Never Ending Improvement
VISION
PLAN
ACT
TRACK
Plan Implement Evaluate
Easy as P.I.E.
Write/Edit
Research
MonitorAnalytics
Find the Muse
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An author’s marketing mindset
Offers
Lead Capture
Traffic
• Seek to build TRUST. • It can take up to 7 impressions to get noticed.
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Generating traffic
• YouTube• Facebook• LinkedIn• Squidoo/Hubpages• Commenting on others blogs• Wordpress.com community• Forums• Affiliates• Adwords / Facebook Ads
Offers
Lead Captur
e
Traffic
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Converting Traffic to Leads
• Free offer• Free subscription (value)• Free membership• Free trial• Low cost product• Reason to act now• Don’t make me think
Offers
Lead Captur
e
Traffic
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Offering relevant content
• Free offer / discount coupon• Free subscription (value)• Free membership• Free trial• Low cost product• Reason to act now• Don’t make me think
Offers
Lead Captur
e
Traffic
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Titles & Taglines
• Does the title offer a benefit to the reader?• If your book title was the title of a workshop,
would it pull in attendees? Would they be willing to PAY?
• It must benefit the reader. Consider we want to be:– Entertained– Educated– Offered more to buy
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Titles & Taglines
Covers & Banners
• Less words. More art.• Will it look good as a thumbnail?• 3D or Shadow = Subtle but powerful
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eBook DistributionMultiple routes to monetization
Amazon Others
•Print books•Kindle books•Kindle Blogs
Apple & Droid
•*iPad/iTunes• Google Books (coming soon)
Other eReaders(B&N / Borders)
• Nook• Kobo• Sony Reader
• Straight from your site! (Clickbank, PayDotCom, e-junkie)• Smashwords• Scribd• LuLu Marketplace (WeRead)• Feedbooks• Diesel eBooks (via Ingram)
Two paths:Direct OR Indirect (aggregators )
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Fast path to e-publishing
1 •Setup a blog – publish online•Create compelling content•Create compelling cover/banner
2 •Offer a free download•Create a following (leverage social media)•Add your blog to Amazon’s Kindle
3 •Write your ebook in MS Word, optimize, and upload to Amazon•Publish ebook to Amazon & offer pdf on your site.•Giveaway free excerpts on various epublishing aggregators
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Fast path to print publishing
1 •Setup layout in InDesign•Create Professional cover
2 •Upload to CreateSpace or other self-publishing service•OR: Get a publisher to back your project (like 50 Interviews)
3 •Explore distribution options•Decide if (or when) you want to fulfill directly
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Getting your blog on Kindle
Setup a wordpress blog &
setup RSS feed
Polish the look & feel
1. Create Blog2. Create FeedburnerAccount
Write some great content!
Go back to your 4 up & 8 up worksheets.
Set your account Amazon &
Publish!
https://kindlepublishing.amazon.com
Get professional looking banner & cover
1 2 3 4
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Getting your book on KindleThe largest ebook marketplace
Start with a well formatted Word
Doc.
Create an account & upload
1. Create Blog2. Create FeedburnerAccount
Create a good cover. Polish the
look & feel.
Go back to your 4 up & 8 up worksheets.
Promote your book!
1 2 3 4
• Dtp.amazoncom• Confirm clean conversion with preview.• Consider hiring a professional if the formatting is wrong.
Drive traffic throughSocial media & your blog.
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More channels to sell your eBook
ClickBank E-JunkiePayloadz
$49 setup fee.Largest affiliate network.Doesn’t offer a secure download page.
PayDotCom
Payloadz is free (up to $50/mo.) then $14.95/mo.
AppleiBookstore
1 2 3 4
E-Junkie is only $5/mo.
Try bookbaby.com?$49 setup fee.
First product free.$29 setup for more than 1 product.Provides secure download page.
B&N and Google are both due to release a publishing platform this summer. Until then, you can get your content on the nook when you publish to smashwords.com
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From blogger to author
Amazon Ranking:Steffan #47,361Creator #210,009
Amazon Rankings:#12,086 #36,421 #47,943
Began blogging in 2002.
…From marketer to author:
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Emulate to Learn
Leo Babautu• ZenHabits blog (top 100 blogger)• Zen To Done $9.50 ebook sold through
affiliates (e-Junkie)• Self-published via CreateSpace• Book deal with Hyperion (The Power of Less)Keys to success:
• Had a following (top 100 blogger)• Created great content.• Great cover art.• Great Endorsements (Seth Godin & Tim Ferriss)
• Simple site.•Uses ‘Uncopyright’ for all posts & now applies to his book as well!• Great artwork for affiliates (widgets)• Easy transaction (e-junkie). • Leveraged affiliates
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Emulate to Learn
Josh Kaufman• Personal MBA.com• Started blog in Apr-2005• 1st book (Portfolio) – Dec ’10
Keys to success:
• Built loyal community on NING• Offers one-on-one coaching• Notice how the URL become the title of his book? Lesson: Pick you URL carefully!
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Emulate to Learn
Scott Belsky• ActionMethod.com• 1st book (Portfolio/Penguin
Group) – 2010
• Built upon a methodology & online tool.
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Emulate to Learn
Brian Halligan & Dharmesh Shah
• Hubspot.com & Onstartup.com launched June-2006
• 1st book (Wiley) – Oct ‘09
• Amazon Ranking: 1,212
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Emulate to Learn
Laura Bradenburg• bridging-the-gap.com• Averaging 5 sales/week (eBook:
How to Start a BA Career)
Keys to success:
• Relevant blog posts• eMail marketing• Builds brand through volunteering for a professional organization
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Emulate to Learn
Impact Lab
• Impactlab.com• Generates $2,000/mo.• Launched in 2001
Keys to success:• 23,000 posts• 600,000 page views/mo.• 10,000 subscribers• Tom & Deb
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Emulate to Learn ??
Twitter to best selling author
• #9 top paid kindle book (as of 7/21/10)• #11 hardcover (as of 7/21/10)• http://twitter.com/shitmydadsays - nearly 1.5
millilon followers on twitter!• First tweet – 8/3/09– Mentioned on the daily show within 1 month– Mentioned on Laughing Squid– #followfriday (started by Boulderite Micah
Baldwin) got him his first wave of followers.• Published by HarperCollins – 5/4/10
shitmydadsays.com
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Emulate to Learn
wine.about.com
• Started writing for wine.about.com in Jan ’05• 805,000 - 1mil page views/mo.• $800-$2,000/mo. ($250-$650 base)• Payouts based on YTY growth• Tight alignment with the Food Channel• Killer perks!!Keys to success• Writing about something she enjoys• Ongoing back link building*About.com has 853 subdomains (as of July-2010)
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Emulate to Learn
Millionaire Mommy Next Door• Started on blogger.com
• Site Hacked• Google shut it down• Moved to Wordpress• Day she posted my video
was one of the my highest traffic days…
Keys to success• Writing about something she’s
passionate about (it’s not about the $)
…And still my highest traffic videos to date!
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• Traditional media is motivated to find ‘in house’ experts first (case in point, this morning on the Today show, an iVillage blogger was the expert featured.
• iVillage is owned by NBC• About.com is owned by the NY Times• Examiner (A Denver based company) is owned
by The Anschutz Co.
New age journalists
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Sour
ce: C
ompe
te.c
om
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Building it all on Google& doing it all for free!
• CREATE: – Upload your book to Google Books– Create site on blogger.com– Setup Google analytics
• SELL– Use Google Checkout to sell your print books or use Google Editions
to sell your eBooks!
• PROMOTE– Run Adwords campaigns– Create a opt-in newsletter with Feedburner.– Use Google Calendar for event marketing– Create videos on Youtube to drive taffic– Use Google Groups to create readers groups
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Publishing 1 tweet-at-a-time
• Create a twitter account for your book title(ie. twitter.com/50entrepreneurs)• Add twitter widget (from within twitter) to your
blogspot or wordpress page• You can either select ‘profile widget’ to include all
your posts or just ‘Favs’ to list specific tweets (that you ‘star’) – can also be tweets from other twitter users.
• Recommended: Install ‘Twitter Tools by Alex King ’ plug in to automatically generate a tweet for each post.
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Publishing 1 tweet-at-a-timeJustin Halpern Model
• Create an account on status.net• Create a twitter account for your book title(ie. twitter.com/50entrepreneurs)• Link the two. Your posts from Status.net go to your
twitter page.
An idea without a deadline is just a
dream.
Ideas to action
Tools• The Merlin Principle• The Pomodoro Technique• Mission Control• ActionMethod.com• 30boxes.com Do just 1 thing
each day.
List of resources mentioned at
www.kindleexpert.com(click on resources)
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Exploring New Markets
Daisy.org
Other ideas?
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