SELF PUBLISHING ©2018 Jericho Writers How to self- publish A whirlwind tour
SELF PUBLISHING
©2018 Jericho Writers
How to self-publishA whirlwind tour
©2018 Jericho Writers
What we’re going to talk about
Who am I? What’s Jericho Writers? The indie publishing model
How not to self-publish a book And a little bit of magic
The mindset you needCase study
How to make $30,000 without really trying
Basics Seven vital things
©2018 Jericho Writers
And here’s our no BS promise
Most webinars are alltease & sell
We’re going to deliver as much heavy-duty value as we can
We do have something to offer at the end,but you’re welcome to switch off if you want
©2018 Jericho Writers
Don’t take notes!
We’ll send you the replay
We’ll give you the slides
Brains open. Burners on. Let’s go …
©2018 Jericho Writers
So let’s get started
Who am I?
What is Jericho Writers?
©2018 Jericho Writers
But I made more money when Iself-published.
4x more. And it was easy
Major book deals with
global publishers in
UK, US, Japan, China,
Ger, France, Italy, Spain
Plus: Series under option in Hollywood.
Brilliant reader relationships.
I’m Harry Bingham, and I’m a writerholic
©2018 Jericho Writers
All experience levels.
All kinds of routes
to success
All genres
All nationalities
All ages
We know we can
help writers like you
(We’ve done it before)
Jericho Writers helps 100s of writers get published or professionally self-published
©2018 Jericho Writers
How not to self-publish
An idiot’s guide
©2018 Jericho Writers
It’s easy to self-publish … badly
The neversell mindset
“I like writing books.I didn’t get anywhere with trad publishing,
so I’ll just put the book out thereand see what happens.”
©2018 Jericho Writers
You already know what’s going to happen
Nothing
No sales. No reviews. No readers
©2018 Jericho Writers
You
No brand
No readership
No marketing
… No hope
World’s best authors
Massive brands
Huge readership
Vast marketing
Keen pricing
And it’s kind of obvious why
©2018 Jericho Writers
The successfulindie mindset
Right mindset
+ disciplined work
+ adequate writing skill
= Success
©2018 Jericho Writers
The mindset
I am going to be systematic
I’m going to use a marketing system that I know works
I’m going to apply it with care
Yes, I may want to experiment …
but only once I’ve got the basics straight
©2018 Jericho Writers
The mindset
I am going to care about quality
Bad books won’t sell
Mediocre books are painfully hard to promote
Good books make your marketing task much easier
©2018 Jericho Writers
The mindset
I am going to be prolific
Lots of indie authors think they need to publish 20 booksbefore they can make a living
That’s wrong. You can do it with far fewer.
But 1-2 books? You’ve only just started…
©2018 Jericho Writers
The mindset
I am going to sell ebooks on Amazon.com
Yes: you can and will sell print
Yes: you can and will sell audio
Yes: you can and will sell in other territories
Yes: you can and may sell on other stores
But Amazon.com is where you’ll earn your $$$. So focus.
©2018 Jericho Writers
The mindset, summarised
I know that hit and hope will never work
©2018 Jericho Writers
Basics
What you need to start
©2018 Jericho Writers
You need
A KDP account – use your AMZ login(kdp.amazon.com)
A book
A cover
A computer
That’s it
©2018 Jericho Writers
Most of the things you worry about are incredibly easy
How do I get my book onto Amazon anyway?You use your KDP dashboard
How do I turn my Word doc into an ebook file?You use your KDP dashboard
What metadata do I need & how do I input it?You use your KDP dashboard
How do I get print books as well as ebooks?You use your KDP dashboard
©2018 Jericho Writers
So actually …
I don’t really need to talk about basics at all
©2018 Jericho Writers
The indiepublishing model
The heart of everything
©2018 Jericho Writers
Step 1
Launch your #1 ebook
First book? You’re going to need help launching. You’ll use:
Book promo sites (like Robin Reads, ENT, FreeBooksy, …)
Co-promotions with other authors (Prolific Reads)
Facebook groups, but don’t be spammy
Amazon advertising, but it probably won’t be profitable yet
And low prices!
©2018 Jericho Writers
Step 2
Your #1 ebook says:“Hey, do you want a free story?”
One you create – a mini ebook, in effect.
Same world, same characters, same everything
©2018 Jericho Writers
Step 3
Your readers love your stuff,so they download the freebie
(“reader magnet”)
They get a great short(ish) story
You get an email address
©2018 Jericho Writers
Step 4
You launch book #2
This time, you write to your mailing list:
“Hey, my new book is out. Go buy it.”
©2018 Jericho Writers
Step 5
They buy it!
You make some lovely sales
And you haven’t spent a penny
©2018 Jericho Writers
Step 6
(a) Write another book
(b) Launch another book
(c) Repeat & repeat
Ta-daaa!
©2018 Jericho Writers
~~ Intermission ~~
I want to aska little question…
©2018 Jericho Writers
What do we think so far?
Um. Is that all?
©2018 Jericho Writers
A little bit of magic
Why the basic model isbetter than you think
©2018 Jericho Writers
Here’s why email marketing looks crap
Here’s a scenarioYou sell 6,000 ebooks of Book X
You collect 1,000 email addresses
Those emails let you sell 300 books when you launch X+1
That would be a really good outcome …But you still have to find an additional 5,700 sales even to match Book X
©2018 Jericho Writers
There’s got to be more to it, right?
Here’s a scenarioYou sell 6,000 ebooks of Book X
You collect 1,000 email addresses
Those emails let you sell 300 books when you launch X+1
This story misses the most important element
©2018 Jericho Writers
Here’s what really happens
1. You send your emailLet’s say you have 1000 names on your list
©2018 Jericho Writers
Then this happens …
2. People buy your bookLet’s say you get a 30% conversion rate
That give you 300 people who are buying your book
They’ll do that in a very short time frame –let’s say 24 hours
©2018 Jericho Writers
You’ve just sold 300 books in 24 hours
Amazon’s bestseller list is very, very short-term
So you’ve just climbed toposition 500 or so
on the overall Amazon.com bestseller chart
Then the magic happens
©2018 Jericho Writers
And what does that mean?
Position #500 means you are quite likely to be #1 on your category bestseller list
Or top #10 / top #20 in even crowded niches
And you’ll feature in “Hot New Release” selections
You might feature in marketing emails, etc
That delivers a HUGE amount of visibilityAND your book is getting in front of the exact right group of readers
©2018 Jericho Writers
Visibility means sales
Email ➔ sales to readers ➔ visibility➔ sales to brand new readers
So an email list delivers sales way in excess of the total size of the list.
It’s magic … but it’s real
©2018 Jericho Writers
Case study
Bet you’d like somecold hard numbers …
©2018 Jericho Writers
In summer 2015, I launched a bookI also had 4 kids under the age of two
Book
Kids
©2018 Jericho Writers
My genius marketing strategy (in full)
Send 1 email
Um. That’s it.
That summer I was a teeny-tiny bit busy
©2018 Jericho Writers
My list at launch: 330 emails
1st month sales: 2,200 e-books
1st year sales: 5,000+
Other series titles:
List size 12 months later: 1,700
Self-pub income from 1 email: $30,000
Other marketing? Nil – I was changing nappies
Thing is though, things worked out OK
©2018 Jericho Writers
Main lesson to take away
Email capture is critical
Really, success in self-pub comes down to this:
(A) Write a good book
(B) Build a list of engaged readers
(C) Return to A & go again
©2018 Jericho Writers
There’s a lot of additional stuff you can do
Price promos
Promo sites
Co-promotion with other authors
Social media (non-idiot sort)
Box sets & other product extensions
Amazon ads, Bookbub ads, Facebook ads
But these are add-ons
Email marketing will lie right at the heart of your whole machine
©2018 Jericho Writers
7 Quick Wins
©2018 Jericho Writers
Win the FirstGet the cover right
Don’t skimp!
Get the right cover
Pro designer: $300+
Pre-made cover: $50+
There are 10s of 100s of pro designs available for sale. If in doubt, buy one.
©2018 Jericho Writers
Win the SecondGet your text right
Don’t skimp!
Perfect your text
MS assessment: $750+Proofreading: save money!
Your first self-pub title is themost important. Get it right
Blatant plug
©2018 Jericho Writers
Win the ThirdBuild your website for the long term
Don’t skimp on your website
Right platform: WordPress
Right theme: Parallax for Writers(gocreate.me / $399)
Right domain: yourname.com(already taken? Then yournameauthor.com)
Your website is a key, key tool. Get it right from the start.
©2018 Jericho Writers
Win the FourthWrite in series
Writing in series will make you loads more money than
writing standalones.
Romance authors can do it,so you can too
©2018 Jericho Writers
Win the FifthMake your work exclusive to Amazon
75%
17%
5%3%
Wide Indies
Amazon
Apple
Nook
Kobo
52%48%
Kindle Select
Kindle Unlimited Full-Read
Amazon Retail Sales
‘Narrow’ indies get a full half of their income via KU‘Wide’ indies get a much smaller boost from other retailers
©2018 Jericho Writers
Win the SixthDon’t put your book on pre-order
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29
Reviews starting to populate. Book available. Conversions will be good –but you’ve lost your traffic!
Traffic will spike when you email readers about the book, then fall away
Pre-order period Post-publication sales
No reviews? Can’t read the book? Conversions will stink.
©2018 Jericho Writers
Win the SeventhDon’t be a dummy
Learn how to self-publish.
Then self-publish
You can try doing it the wrong way round,but you’ll mess up badly
©2018 Jericho Writers
Cheesy selling bit
Q&A follows
©2018 Jericho Writers
Let’s review what we’ve learned
We’ve learned the basic model(email marketing)
We’ve learned a few tricks(Pre-made covers, pre-orders, write in series, Amazon exclusivity, etc)
But no way do we know enoughto self-publish professionally
©2018 Jericho Writers
There’s so much more to know
For example:What’s the best way to lay out your ebook?
How do you set up your website to maximise conversions?
How do you use your mailing list between launches?
What’s the best way to run a price promo?
What’s the fastest, best way to get reviews post-launch?
©2018 Jericho Writers
Unsurprisingly, there are some great courses available
Chandler Bolt, SP School - $6,997
Steve Scott, Authority - $597
Nick Stephenson, SP Formula - $597
Mark Dawson, 1.01 - $497
Any of these courses will radically improve your self publishing
©2018 Jericho Writers
We have a great course too
It’s called Self-Publishing Success
It’s great
It covers everything
And we recommend you don’t buy it
©2018 Jericho Writers
Because the thing about us is
We love writers
So we want to give you more.
For less.
©2018 Jericho Writers
In fact, we give away our Self-Publishing course FREE to members
We cover every topic you needText preparation Editing & Copyediting Formatting Print books Ebook layouts Book covers Uploading Categories & keywords Titles, subtitles, series titles Book descriptions Pricing Reviews Launch teams Reader magnets Landing page construction Reader magnet distributionMailing list basics Co-promotions Book promo sites Price promos Social media Amazon ads Bookbub ads Facebook adsMailing list advanced And more
Membership = £195, or approx. $259
©2018 Jericho Writers
But the thing is …
We love writers
©2018 Jericho Writers
So members of Jericho Writers don’t just get our Self Publishing course for free
They get everything
©2018 Jericho Writers
Our members also get – for FREE
A complete course on how to write17 videos
Lavishly documented
Intensely actionable
Amazing user feedback
©2018 Jericho Writers
Our members also get – for FREE
A course on Getting Published
Full access to AgentMatch
Member-only webinars
Tons of masterclasses
Cinema films
And much more
©2018 Jericho Writers
Jericho Writers
Self-publishing Success +
How To Write + Getting
Published + webinars +
AgentMatch + more
£195 / $259
Chandler Bolt - $6,997
Steve Scott - $597
Nick Stephenson - $597
Mark Dawson - $497
Prices for self-pub courses only
So my recommendation?
©2018 Jericho Writers
My recommendation is …
Don’t take out membership of Jericho Writers
©2018 Jericho Writers
Wait till November 29th …
And we’ll give you Jericho Writers membership
at 33% off the normal price
©2018 Jericho Writers
You don’t need to do anything to register
Just check your emails around Black FridayWe’ll tell you exactly what to do
33% off – membership just £130 / $175
©2018 Jericho Writers
That’s it from me
Questions?