The Bestseller Labs Guide For Authors

by Jonathan Gunson

How To Get Published

&
How To Increase Your Book Sales

Includes the strategy I used to get published and

sell over 350,000 copies of my bestseller book
 Publishing & Copyright Information

All rights reserved. No copying or reproduction of any type in any media online or offline is permitted
unless express permission has been provided in writing by KKB Ltd. (New Zealand.)

The ideas, content and principles in this book are provided on an advisory basis only. Results of application are
entirely dependent on the abilities of individual companies or individuals. Results may vary.

No guarantee is made regarding earnings, financial or any other outcomes. Any and all forward looking statements
are intended to express an opinion only of any earnings potential. Many factors will be important in determining your
actual results and no guarantees are made that you will achieve any results from the ideas and techniques in this
material.

While all attempts have been made to verify information provided in this publication, neither the author nor the
Publisher assumes any responsibility for errors, omissions or contrary interpretation of the subject matter.

The information contained herein may be subject to varying state and/or local laws or regulations.
All users are advised to retain competent counsel to determine what state and / or local laws or regulations
may apply to the user's particular business. The purchaser or reader of this publication assumes responsibility for the
use of this information. Adherence to all applicable laws and regulations, both federal and state and local, governing
professional licensing, business practices, advertising and all other aspects of doing business in the United States or
any other jurisdiction is the sole responsibility of the purchaser or reader.

The author and Publisher assume no responsibility or liability whatsoever on the behalf of the reader of these
materials.

Every attempt is made to provide proper credit to the authors and owners of material quoted in this publication
whenever possible. We do not claim ownership of any of their original works or products included in this publication.
We do not claim ownership or copyright of or in any independent products mentioned or referred to in this publication.
Nor do we intentionally infringe on anyone's copyrighted material.

© Copyright KKB Limited New Zealand

All rights reserved.
 Contents

Introduction

Chapter 1 – How I Sold Over 350,000 Copies Of My Book ‘The Merlin Mystery’

Chapter 2 – The Greatest Time In History To Be An Author

Chapter 3 – Book Visibility: The Real Challenge Facing Authors Today

Chapter 4 – How To Achieve Book Visibility: Your Author Platform

Chapter 5 – How To Build Your Author Platform

Chapter 6 – The Right Way (And The Wrong Way) To Communicate With Potential
Readers & Supporters

Chapter 7 – How To Get A Traditional Publishing Deal

Chapter 8 – How To Self-Publish Your Own Book On The Kindle

Chapter 9 – The Incredible Opportunity That Awaits You

 Introduction

The Bestseller Labs Guide For Authors

Welcome.

I have written this guide to help you overcome the main challenges you face in becoming a
successfully published author today.

In Chapter 1, I’ll show you how I secured a traditional publishing deal and sold over 350,000
copies of my bestseller book ‘The Merlin Mystery’.

In Chapters 2 – 9, I’ll show you what YOU need to do to achieve your author goals:

• How to get a traditional print publishing deal

• How to successfully self-publish your own book on the Amazon Kindle™
• How to grow your readership and sell large numbers of your books

Fundamentally, this guide is about (1) how to make your books visible to attract buyers, and (2)
how to keep them as a community of fans who buy everything you write, so you don’t have to
find buyers from scratch for each new book. Thanks to the internet and social media it’s never
been easier for you to get published, attract buyers and grow a substantial readership.
 Chapter 1
How I Sold 350,000 Copies Of My Book
‘The Merlin Mystery’

Illustration from ‘The Merlin Mystery’

I’m proud to say that my ‘Merlin Mystery’ puzzle book was a runaway success.

It sold well over 350,000 hard-cover copies, generated more than $4 million dollars in retail
sales, and was translated into 7 different languages. The book’s website and readers’ forum had
over a million hits in the first month.

But that success didn’t happen overnight. My journey to bestseller success was long and
complicated, and involved plenty of blood, sweat and tears.

Thankfully, the combined power of the internet, social media and the rise of eBooks and
eReaders means that your own author journey doesn’t need to be anywhere near as difficult.
These tools now make it easier than ever before to get published and grow a substantial
readership.

I’ll show you exactly how to use those tools to your advantage in later chapters of this guide.

But first, let me take you back to a time when I was obsessed with becoming a successful
author…
Siamese Cats & Buried Treasure…

As a young writer and illustrator of children’s books, I desperately wanted a successful

bestseller. The most sales I had achieved with one of my children’s books – ‘Mr Smudge’s
Thirsty Day’ – were 15,000 copies. Not bad, but not a huge financial success.

Here’s an illustration of mine from that book. The cat in the story was real – he lived with us,
and happily modeled when required:

After ‘Mr. Smudge’, I cast around for ideas. But months of thinking, searching and trawling
through all my earlier ‘ideas’ files brought nothing. I became very frustrated.

Then lightning struck.

I had been burning to do an illustrated ‘puzzle book’ for some time, but the market for puzzle
books was even smaller than for children’s books.

The solution came from an unexpected quarter. In my hunt for ideas, I was researching
‘Alchemy’, the ancient pseudo-science of turning ordinary metal such as lead into pure gold.
Perhaps the answer lay there?

Then, while I was trawling through a trunk of childhood memorabilia, I came across a book of
Arthurian legends my grandmother had given me for my fifth birthday. I’d always been
captivated by the Arthurian legends, especially the legend of Merlin, and the world of wizards,
magic and magicians.

Treasure hunts had also intrigued me from an early age, such as Aladdin, Treasure Island and
the Count of Monte Cristo. But even more to the point was the 1970s Kit Williams puzzle book,
‘Masquerade’.
Kit had hidden a golden hare in the English countryside for seekers to find, with the book being
a sort of ‘treasure map’. People swarmed all over the landscape, digging holes in parks and
gardens in a frenzied attempt to find the golden prize. And … someone did solve the puzzle
and locate the prize.

Then it hit me: why not combine these influences?

So I envisaged a magical ‘treasure hunt’, a puzzle book about Merlin, in which the ‘alchemy’
would become REAL with a golden ‘alchemy jackpot’ that no-one had ever done before. A
stream of pure gold really would appear, and if I did it right, the book might ‘go viral’.

I fell into a cold sweat. What if someone else did it first? So I kept the project well hidden until
the book was launched.

The book was titled ‘The Merlin Mystery’, and the puzzle challenge was to find the Alchemist’s
Spell from clues hidden amongst the story and pictures in the book, then send in the solution. If
they were correct, they’d win the wand and all the gold. (I will explain about the gold shortly –
it’s the main marketing strategy of the book.)

I would also be able to take full advantage of the global reach of the internet which had not
existed in Kit Williams’ day. I could use its potential to spread the word virally about the book. I
planned a website with animation and mysterious clickable secrets and trickery to fascinate
visitors and generate buzz about the book, plus a busy forum that would grow a community of
readers and puzzlers.

I also decided not only to make a magical puzzle book, but actually create Merlin’s ‘Wand of
Alchemy’ as the prize for whoever solved the puzzle in the book. It would be expensive, but I
was absolutely certain that this was the path.

So I got together with my friend Marten Coombe with whom I co-illustrated the book, and we
worked up ideas with a goldsmith, Peter Woods. He crafted the wand and it was a masterpiece.
(It was also nearly a meter long.)
It took nearly a year to make the wand, but once it was complete, next stop on the journey was
to approach publishers in the UK.

After a long month of pitching to publishing companies, I arrived at Harper Collins, who not only
loved the book, the wand, and gold prize idea, but gave me an astonishing advance of
£100,000.

The book not only went on to be published, but was successful beyond all my expectations.

‘The Merlin Mystery’ book and some of the illustrations:

Illustrations from ‘The Merlin Mystery’ © Copyright Jonathan Gunson & Marten Coombe
The ‘Viral Dynamite’ That Made The Sales Explode:

I decided to make the ‘Alchemy’ myth a reality so that the book would produce a stream of real
gold in order to incite ‘quest fever’ and drive sales into the stratosphere. This was something
that hadn’t been done before.

My publishers, Harper Collins were so excited by this promotional idea that they put up a giant
outdoor display in Shaftesbury Avenue, London:

Here’s how it worked: I created a ‘jackpot’ prize of pure gold that increased with every Merlin
Mystery book sold. Remarkably, an increasing prize had never been done with a book before.

The title page of the book has a rhyme explaining this:

With alchemy and dragons’ fire

Your fortune shall unfold,
For with each book the prize enriches
By a grain of gold.

So if you seek and find herein

The fabled golden spell,
Merlin’s wand is yours to keep
And all the gold as well.

The elegance and beauty of the increasing alchemy idea becomes apparent when you realize
the jackpot didn’t cost me anything, because the gold came from the proceeds of each book.
For every book sold, we put a tiny grain of gold in The Bank of England and the pile began to
grow. The Governor of The Bank of England offered this without hesitation. (It’s amazing what
people will do for you if you just ASK.) He also agreed to display the wand with stage lighting,
surrounded by ‘gold’ bars, placed squarely in the main entrance of the bank in Threadneedle
Street, London.

Sure enough, from book-launch day onwards, word-of-mouth buzz began to swell as the prize
increased.

As the ‘prize jackpot’ grew rapidly in size, I would log into the website forum as ‘Merlin’ and
announce each increase. This created hysteria every time I appeared, and attracted a greater
and greater number of people. The larger the jackpot grew, the more people came to the
website and then rushed to buy the book.

I was hoping to sell at least 75,000 copies. This was ambitious, because remember, this is a
narrow-genre book, just for people who like puzzles. But as the prize exploded, it drove more
sales, which further increased the prize. A dozen independent fan sites also burst into
existence, and so as ‘Merlin’, I announced the prize total on those sites too.

Then the world went mad as the ‘viral’ effect kicked in. As the prize grew larger, word of mouth
began to spread faster. At a certain point it reached critical mass.

Less than a month after launch date, waves of visitors hit the website to see how much the prize
had increased. On seeing the prize double from $15,000 to $30,000, the numbers of visitors
rocketed and the books sales roared upwards.

When the prize went past $45,000, the book sales did a moon shot.

In the first month the website had over

One million hits.

The ‘jackpot’ prize eventually increased to over

$100,000.

By the time it was all over, I had sold more than

350,000 copies of my book.
(Over $7 Million Dollars in retail sales.)

Was The Merlin Mystery Puzzle Solved?

There was a final deadline for the puzzle to be solved. By time that date arrived, the puzzlers
had come to within a hair’s breadth of solving it. But it was too late, the contest was over.

So I put the solution up on the website, and here it is.

 Most people thought the Alchemist’s Spell would be a rhyme.
But no, it was a picture instead, although you still had to say
the runes out loud to cast the spell.

The Alchemist’s Spell is to help discover your true ‘golden’

mission in life. The candles are lit and the runes called out,
one by one, going around the circle from the silver candle to
the gold one.

The idea is that you are changing from ‘silver’ to ‘gold’.

A personal form of alchemy.

People loved it!

Where Is Merlin’s ‘Wand of Alchemy’ Now?

Merlin’s ‘Wand of Alchemy’ was auctioned on Amazon. The

mysterious buyer then disappeared like a phantom, so I do not
know where it is. It has vanished.

A new mystery perhaps?

The total prize in gold of over $150,000 was donated to the

World Wide Fund for Nature to help with their battle to save
endangered species around the world.

In sum, this is all about the potential of your creativity and your books. You just need a helping
hand to knock down the walls that stand in your way.

Next in Chapter 2, I’ll show you why this the greatest time in history to be a fiction writer, and
how to successfully take part in it, either in e-publishing or with a traditional publisher.
 Chapter 2
The Greatest Time In History To Be An Author

We are currently witnessing the greatest transformation of the

publishing industry since Johannes Gutenberg invented the printing
press in 1450.

The internet and social media, together with the unstoppable rise of
eBooks and eReaders such as the Amazon Kindle, have combined
to change the publishing landscape forever.

Not only has ePublishing made it possible for anyone to get a book
out there and selling, the power of the internet and social media now
means that word about a good book spreads both further and faster
than was ever dreamed of before.

For the first time, it’s also now possible to stay connected with your fans and keep
communicating with them – so they buy your subsequent books AND help spread the word.

And when you add the fact that an author’s eBooks never go ‘out of print’ and can stay on the
virtual ‘shelves’ forever, you have what represents a truly unprecedented opportunity for
authors, and I’ll show you how to take full advantage of it in this guide.

Let’s take a moment to look at each of these exciting changes in turn:

1. Getting Published Is No Longer The Privilege Of ‘A Select Few’

Before the days of eBooks and the Amazon.com marketplace, most books were purchased in
physical bookstores.

Given that physical bookstores have limited shelf-space, they could only take a limited number
of print titles at any one time. Add in the cost of printing and distribution, and the result was that
publishers would only pick a limited number of authors to publish each year.

For many writers, this spelled the end of their author dream. Even with a great book, the
chances of being one of the ‘select few’ who got picked were very small. Weeks of waiting and
hoping, only to receive rejection letters that meant the end of the line.

But now the aspiring author has another option – to self-publish their own eBook.

With unlimited digital ‘shelf-space’, there are no such restrictions in online bookstores such as
the Amazon Kindle store, the Barnes & Noble eBook store, and Apple’s iBooks store. Anyone
can format and upload their book for sale in those digital stores – not just big publishing houses.
(And for those still wanting to offer printed books, Amazon has an ‘on-demand’ printing option in
the form of their ‘CreateSpace’ service, whereby they will print individual copies of your book as
and when ordered by customers.)

This means no more waiting and hoping to be ‘picked’. No more rejection letters. Authors can
‘go direct’ and self-publish immediately with global distribution at no cost and make good profits,
without needing to go to publishers who can take years to publish and take most of the profit.

There’s nothing stopping an author still taking the traditional path of course, (which I cover
extensively in Chapter 7 of this guide), but it remains true that self-publishing on the Amazon
Kindle offers some unprecedented advantages.

Recent Kindle publishing success stories include millionaire authors Amanda Hocking, John
Locke and Joe Konrath. Interestingly, Hocking and Locke used their eBook success to secure
traditional print deals with publishers as well. This is because despite its ongoing decline, the
bookstore-based print industry is still huge, and sensibly they wanted to have both eBook and
traditional print book distribution to cover the entire marketplace.

Their success in the eBook marketplace gave them the chance for a traditional print deal.
Proving yourself with an eBook first is a great alternative strategy if you’re having trouble getting
a publisher.

2. Your eBooks Will Never Go Out Of Print, So They Will Keep On Selling
Forever

The second major positive change in the industry is that your ebooks can never ‘go out of print’.

The endlessly repeated tragedy of traditional print publishing is when a writer discovers that
after the launch of their book, they’re not selling nearly as many copies as they had hoped.
They need more time to find and grow a readership for the book, but unfortunately, no such time
is granted.
If the book hasn’t proved to be a big hit within a couple of months, the bookstores send all
unsold copies back to the publisher, who either ‘remainders’ them (sells them off dirt cheap) or
recycles them into paper pulp. Either way, the book is dead.

This is a devastating and all too common experience for the majority of writers. Those few
authors whose books become mega-hits manage to avoid this, as do a considerable number of
Romantic Fiction authors.

Sadly for most authors, this limited ‘window of opportunity’ closes before they’ve had sufficient
time to prove themselves worthy of staying on the shelves.

But with ePublishing, books can now remain on the virtual ‘shelves’ forever, allowing an author
time to find and grow their readership steadily. Furthermore, readers of your ebooks now have
time to fall in love with all the characters and worlds that you create, and tell all their friends.

Sales might be in small numbers at first. But with patience, the sales magic begins to happen
as you take the time to incrementally promote your books one after another, and as readers
gradually spread the word.

Here’s what can happen, compared with the average experience of the book store pathway:

Not only that, eBook authors will start to see a powerful ‘back selling’ phenomenon that occurs
when slow-selling earlier books are discovered by readers who enjoy an author’s later works.

Those readers go back and seek these titles out hungrily, causing the earlier titles to rise,
phoenix-like from the ashes of previously lackluster sales. Unlike in a traditional book store,
these earlier books are still there and available for sale on the Amazon Kindle marketplace,
waiting for revival.

I have dubbed this the ‘Phoenix Effect’ so that writers have a clear image of the phenomenon
firmly lodged in the mind.

In fact the sales of ALL the author’s books are lofted by this phenomenon, and the cumulative
compounding effect of this cannot be understated.
3. More Books Are Being Bought Than Ever Before

Last but not least, far more books than ever before are being bought and read – fuelled by the
popularity of the Kindle, and the spread of book recommendation through social media.

An example of this in action is the phenomenon that has eclipsed them all – the ‘50 Shades Of
Grey’ trilogy by E.L. James.

If you thought Harry Potter was big, this was bigger, and happened in a much shorter time
frame. In less than a year it generated over $145 million in sales of print books and eBooks.

What it illustrates is the vastly increased number of people who are now reading thanks to the
Kindle and eReaders, and other devices on which the Kindle application can be run. This ease
of access to books, along with the increasing spread of the internet, has dramatically increased
the speed of viral of word of mouth recommendation of books.

This was a major factor in the success of the ‘50 Shades’ book trilogy, by enabling word to
spread about the books faster and more widely than ever before. Quoting E L James’
husband, Niall Leonard – in an interview with The Guardian newspaper:

“… on New Year's Eve 2011, a review appeared on Amazon by a reader who mentioned
that every woman in her New York hairdressing salon was either reading the book or
talking about it. We looked at each other and thought, "Oh shit…"

Throughout January and February, sales grew at an absurd, unbelievable rate. It

topped the Amazon erotica chart, then their general fiction chart, then entered the New
York Times Bestsellers list and kept climbing. Emails demanded to know the name of
the genius in charge of Erika's marketing campaign. There was no marketing
campaign. Apart from a few book blogs, it was all word-of-mouth …”

Word-of-mouth recommendation is the key factor that really drives a bestseller. And due to the
viral nature of social media, word can now spread like wildfire as people recommend books to
each other online.
4. For the first time, it’s possible to stay connected with your fans and
keep communicating with them – so they buy your subsequent books AND
help spread the word

As I said at the outset, the idea is not to try to hand-sell every single copy of your book, but
rather to form and keep a growing community of book-buyer fans, who not only spread the word
for you, but who will also buy every book that you write, so you don’t have to find buyers from
scratch.

With your author platform, you can contact all your book buyers – your readers - instantly, and
at will. You could never do this in the past because they were never gathered together in any
organised way. Now they can be. Think about it – the potential power you have is immense.
Each time you put out a new book, you can notify your entire community of buyer fans
immediately. Plus you can also notify book bloggers and other supporters.

It amazes me that publishers have never collected up book buyers’ email addresses, nor
created social groups, author by author, over the years. If they had, they’d be sitting on a gold
mine. Instead this opportunity has fallen into the hands of the authors themselves through
social media.

The key challenge then – assuming you have a good book that’s properly aligned with a specific
genre – is how to make it visible to people, so they can discover your books and form a
community of readers and supporters.

(And yes, this applies to those authors looking for a traditional publishing deal just as much as
those self-publishing their eBooks, as I’ll explain shortly.)

In the next chapter, we’ll look at what you can do to achieve this crucial visibility.
 Chapter 3
Book Visibility: The Real Challenge Facing Authors Today

When the numbers of traditional print books and eBooks are combined, there are well over a
million titles published each year.

The real challenge you therefore face is not just the writing of a sensational book, but also how
to make that book visible – so it can be discovered by book buyers. (These buyers then
become a community of reader-fans that you keep, who increasingly spread the word, and
whom you can also notify every time you release a new book.)

So how do you achieve this?

‘Getting Published’ Is No Longer Enough

A decade ago, simply getting your book onto the shelves in a chain of bookstores with a ‘Staff
Recommendation’ tag might have been enough to achieve the crucial initial readership that
starts the ‘word of mouth recommendation’ process.

If you were lucky, your publisher might have even paid for some extra in-store promotion, such
as display stands and posters.

But fewer and fewer people are visiting bookstores, and more and more people are choosing to
buy their books online at websites such as Amazon. E-books have already begun to eclipse
print book sales, but even print books are now being purchased online instead of in bookstores.
Bookstores are struggling because of this, and like it or not, many are closing down.

In turn, this is changing people’s book buying habits, and the way they discover new authors.
When you take into account that people do much less ‘shelf browsing’ at online stores than they
did in traditional bookstores, and you take into account the greatly increased level of competition
nowadays, it’s pretty obvious to see that any ‘visibility’ you might once have achieved simply by
‘getting published’ is now largely gone.

Instead, readers are now discovering new books (and forming that crucial initial readership for a
new author) in entirely new and different ways – and almost all of it is happening online.

You Get The Visibility You Need By Interacting With Potential Readers &
Supporters Online

Review sites, book blogs, fan forums, and social media such as Twitter and Facebook – those
are the places where this visibility is now achieved, and where initial readerships and
communities are formed.

For the modern author, interacting with potential readers and supporters in these online places
is how you gain the visibility that your books need. This is not just something you can do; it’s
now something you must do if you want to succeed.

This means that promotion is no longer something ‘the publisher takes care of’, because getting
it on the bookstore shelves simply isn’t enough any more. Interacting with potential new readers
online is what gets the crucial visibility now, and that isn’t something the publisher can do for the
author.

It is the author who posts on Facebook and Twitter, and who writes the blog posts. It is the
author who actually picks and pins on their Pinterest page, and who answers the questions in
the interviews with book bloggers.

For this reason, increasing numbers of authors are realising that they have no need for a
publisher at all. They can simply hire their own editor and cover designer, upload their own
book to Amazon, and then keep all the sale profits for themselves, skipping the publisher
middleman completely.

But Can You Still Get A Publisher If You Want One?

As book purchasing moves online at an accelerating rate, and as ebooks and ‘print on demand’
gradually replace the ‘bookstore model’, the three major functions of a traditional print publisher
– printing, physical distribution and ‘shelf-space’ negotiation with bookstores – are fast
becoming irrelevant.

So does this spell the end for publishers? Are authors now forced to do everything by
themselves even if they don’t want to?

No. As long as there are authors who need help with promotion, – someone to tell them what to
do and how to do it, there will be publishers who offer that help in exchange for a percentage.
But what those publishers have to offer to authors in exchange for their percentage is radically
changing.
Rather than offering printing, distribution and bookstore negotiation, they instead have to offer
guidance and training on the things that DO achieve that crucial visibility – namely helping the
author interact with potential readers and supporters online.

In addition to editing, formatting, uploading and cover design, publishers who want to take a
percentage of profits are starting to offer writers assistance with online media publicity, blogging,
social media training, arranging book blog tours, and even going as far as running online
advertising.

What is crucial to understand however, is that writers who choose this route need to meet the
publisher halfway. Ironically, the writers who get picked by these publishers will be the ones
who demonstrate that they already have a good grip on the online promotional side of things.

Let me explain…

‘Promotion-Ready’ Authors Will Be The Ones Who Are Picked

An author who is completely invisible when searched for online is not likely to attract one of
these new publishing deals.

Given a choice between two books of equal quality to choose from, a publisher will always pick
the author who has demonstrated they have some online promotional capability and can help
promote their books.

This means that authors must learn the ropes before they approach a publisher because the
publisher will not want to train an author in social media right from scratch. Given a choice,
they’ll pick the ‘already promotionally savvy’ author every time.

This is obvious when you think about it. In a sea of manuscript submissions, of course
publishers are going to look for the writers who are already halfway down the track to getting
that all-important visibility – because it’s those authors who will make them the most money.

So no matter which path you choose – self-publishing or getting a traditional publisher – you’ll
need to interact with potential readers online and build a community around your books.

In the case of the self-published independent author, this is directly for the purpose of making
sales. For those seeking a publisher, this is not just to increase sales once your book is
published, but also to show potential publishers that you are ahead of the curve, and that you
are the one they should pick.

In the next chapter, I’ll explain where you go about interacting with potential readers and
supporters, using what we’ll call your ‘Author Platform’.
 Chapter 4
How To Achieve Book Visibility: Your Author Platform

In this chapter, I want to show you where your online interaction with potential readers and
supporters takes place. (We’ll look at how to interact with them in the following chapter.)

The collection of places where this happens online is commonly referred to as your
‘Author Platform’:
Building Your Author Platform

At the center of your Author Platform sits your blog, together with your email subscriber list.
These form the hub – your ‘home-base’ if you will.

Outside your hub are various social media and content media websites – all leading back to
your hub and to your books.

I’ll cover this in detail in the next chapter, but essentially what you do in these various online
places is to attract interest in your books by interactively sharing the ‘World Around Your Story’
with readers, along with other content of relevant interest to them. You’ll also interact with
potential supporters such as book bloggers who can help promote you.

This approach avoids having to be a ‘pushy marketer’. Instead, you use your Platform to
engage with readers and supporters in a very social way, by sharing and chatting about things
that are of common interest. (Again, we’ll cover this in more detail in the next chapter.)

I used a rudimentary author platform to promote my ‘Merlin’ book, but it’s much easier now. The
tools are better, they’re more effective and the online audience is far larger.

For example, virtually everyone is on Facebook. Social media services such as Twitter,
Facebook, Linked in, Blogs and Pinterest are not only free to use, but are populated by a large
number of potential readers for your books, and are easy to use. When combined with your
creativity as a writer they become a formidable force.

Not only do you use an Author Platform to find potential readers and supporters, it also allows
you to gather them into a permanent community – i.e. to keep the lines of communication open
with them throughout your career. By staying in contact with existing and future readers via
your Author Platform, you can save a ton of extra effort and struggle by not having to ‘re-launch
yourself’ right from scratch each time you put out a new book.

Start With A Blog, Facebook & Twitter

Building the entire Author Platform (as shown in the diagram) at the outset would be an
overwhelming task. Instead, you build it in small increments – one step at a time. It evolves
steadily while you discover which parts are best suited to you and your own ways of using it.

Expand Your Platform Further When You Feel Ready

You can build out your Author Platform further with some or all of the social media and content
media elements shown in the diagram, as and when you feel comfortable. But remember to
grow your confidence with each stage and only do more when you feel ready.

Avoiding the ‘overwhelm’ factor is crucial: Here‘s what Rachel Weiss of L’Oreal had to say
about Social Media when it was suggested they use all the social channels:
 “…we don't have the social resources from a human perspective to be able to manage
such a breadth of channels. I do believe there is a nuance for how you push content out
on these different channels, but we've been spending a lot of time with Facebook over
the last five years. And Twitter for me is still a channel of innovation. I think that Twitter
is not going away. We have some brands like Maybelline who are focusing time on
Twitter…”

The point is if a large company like L’Oreal has trouble using a wide range of social media, a
lone author is going to find it overwhelming. So keep it simple to start with. I recommend you
begin with a basic author blog (on which you build an email subscriber list), plus accounts on
Twitter and Facebook. I started out with just Twitter and a blog.

It is far better to specialize and become an expert with a small number of social media points or
you’ll become spread too thinly. It is not possible to maintain a wide range of services, and
doing so can distract you from the all-important task of … WRITING.

I personally focus on using Twitter. I also do frequent blog commenting, interviews, guest posts
on other blogs and I’m constantly growing my email list. More recently I started a Google+
account and a Facebook page, but I don’t use those quite as intensively.

Whilst you don’t have to build your entire platform up front, you will discover that the more you
use it, the greater the effect. In fact, you’re not just limited to the assets I’ve mentioned, your
platform can in fact include almost any form of online presence where you draw involve readers
in discussion.

(For example ‘fan fiction’ on a fan forum is an effective form of presence – it’s actually how E.L.
James’ 50 Shades Trilogy got started.)

Author Platform components

1. Author Blog

The first step is to set up a smart-looking author blog. The tools available to do this are now
extremely simple to use.

http://Wordpress.com

Whilst spending a moderate amount of money on designing your blog can prove to be a good
investment, it’s possible to set it up a free blog at Wordpress.com, where you can start blogging
within a few minutes.

It’s very easy to do, using point and click with no coding. Then you’re live online and ready to
start making blog posts. On your blog in the side bar you feature your books, with fine images
of your book covers, and with links to reviews.
2. Email list

It’s remarkable that 99% of authors do not do this, when it’s so easy. The strategy is to build a
good sized list of potential book buyers, to persuade them to buy the next book in your series.
(Picture several thousand expectant readers waiting to buy your next book…)

http://AWeber.com

http://mailchimp.com (First 2000 subscribers free)

AWeber is the email service I use to mail out to all my subscribers. Readers opt-in to your email
list by offering them something they’d be interested in – a subscription to a free e-mail
newsletter, or free chapters of one of your books, or some other form of attractive free giveaway
(such as a short story) that will induce them to sign up. MailChimp is a great alternative,
although less commercial. But they do offer the first 2000 subscribers free.

3. Twitter

Twitter is a network inhabited by millions of people exchanging views ideas and making
connections. It’s like a cocktail party filled with potential readers, supporters and publishing
industry people, and it’s also remarkably easy to use.

http://Twitter.com

4. Facebook

http://facebook.com
On Facebook you use the same interactive tactics as on Twitter. Facebook is less intimately
conversational, and so Twitter remains the powerhouse for me. But the simple fact that
virtually everybody is on Facebook means that you need to be using it. So do set up a
Facebook fan page, otherwise you’ll miss a large part of your audience.

5. Goodreads
http://Goodreads.com

A very large number of book readers and authors congregate at this site which is designed for
the sharing of amateur book reviews. Interact with readers and other authors. Get to know
people and make helpful reading suggestions by writing reviews.

6. Google+

http://plus.google.com

I have a Google+ account, and it’s an excellent place where blog posts can be repurposed.
(You paste a snippet of them into the time line) G+ also identifies you on all Google searches
as the original writer of articles you have on your blog. (People who copy will then be ignored by
Google – largely)

G+ enables you to collect people in tidy groups – e.g. a group of readers/fans of your genre, a
group of book bloggers, a group of agents and publishers, a group of other authors in your
genre, and send messages to all or just some. It also allows images, and has a very clean and
tidy easy to use user interface.

7. LinkedIn

http://LinkedIn.com

This network is probably the most underrated online. There are many excellent specific genre
writer groups to join on LinkedIn who take a serious and helpful approach to each other.

In the next chapter, I show how to go about building your Author Platform, and how to interact
with potential readers and supporters using those online tools.
 Chapter 5
How To Build Your Author Platform

You cannot create an ‘author brand’ out of the blue. It is going to take time for your unique
writing style and personality to emerge. This is what your platform will reflect – your unique
dynamic as an author. It mirrors your increasing ability as an author, constantly growing and
evolving in synch with your writing, book by book.

Your platform is also designed for more than just one book. You continue to grow it for the
length of your career. And you don’t have to wait years for results either. You’ll start to see
beneficial effects in the early stages. It’s also easier to construct than you imagine – the
technical building of your platform involves mostly free, simple-to-use tools, and you’ll have time
to master each one.

Your communications throughout your Author Platform should carry the same consistent
message and styling. People become used to this consistent style. At first you’ll be a stranger,
then familiar, then a fascinating regular part of their lives.

At this point you’ll be well on the way to becoming a bestselling brand.

Three Steps To Building Your Author Platform:

Here are steps you should follow to build and grow your Author Platform. By following these
steps, and by finding and interacting with readers and supporters in the way discussed, you’ll
ultimately get the visibility you need for your books:

Step 1 – Choose your genre and define your reader

Step 2 – Define your unique author brand
Step 3 – Share the ‘World Around Your Story’ with your community

Let’s now go through each step in detail, so you can see what this means in practice.

1. Choose Your Specific Genre & Define Your Ideal Reader

If you want to join the ranks of famous authors, you need to become known for something in
particular. The more that readers can mentally ‘place you’ as an author, the more inclined they
will be to rave about your books. (And remember, word-of-mouth recommendation is the Holy
Grail when it comes to book sales…)
Take some famous examples:

• Raymond E. Feist writes fantasy

• Danielle Steel writes romance
• John Grisham writes legal thrillers
• Ruth Rendell writes crime mysteries
• Mary Higgins Clark writes suspense novels

By sticking to a chosen genre and focusing all their creative energy in it, each has built their own
author brand, and become world-famous in the process.

So what’s your author ‘elevator pitch’? In a sentence, how would you describe to a potential
reader the type of books you write?

“Oh I write a bit of this, a bit of that” isn’t going to cut it. You need to start building a strong,
unique author brand, and you can take a big step in that direction by picking a genre you really
like, and focusing all your time and energy into it.

To help decide your exact genre, it may take some experimentation and the writing of several
books before you settle. Remember that this is your career and there are no short cuts.
Writing for a sub-genre is even more effective. Not ‘books for women’ or ‘romance’, but
‘historical romance’, or ‘paranormal romance’. Be a meaningful specific, not an everywhere
generality.

Now, having said that, the fact is you don’t have to write in just one genre, but as you can see, if
you do it will massively raise your chances of success.

This is also the point at which you should think about defining your ideal reader. Their gender,
socio-economic group and age. Are your stories in alignment with this group within your
genre? Make sure you have a clear idea of who you are writing for, as this will need to be borne
in mind across all your communications in your Author Platform.

2. Define Your Unique Author Brand

You also need to become known for something unique.

The crucial point here is that your books need a memorable point of difference.

What is it that makes your books stand out from all the other ones in your genre? What is
different and unique about the books that you write?

One particular scene in the movie ‘The Artist’ struck a deep chord with me because it
illuminated how authors can use uniqueness to increase their chances of success.

Early in the film, 1920′s silent-movie star George Valentin advises aspiring actress Peppy Millar
that to stand out from the crowd, she needs a ‘point of difference’.
Using a make-up pencil, he puts a beauty spot on her lip.

Beautiful.

This tiny but vital point of difference is cute, but above all it’s memorable – and it paves the way
for her success. All of the other girls in the dance troupe have equal talent, but lack a unique
form of identity. The Hollywood media soon pick up on this ‘Peppy Dot’, and she blossoms into
a glittering star, eclipsing even Valentin himself.

Just as in ‘The Artist’, a ‘beauty spot’ for all your books gives you something unique to talk about
in your publicity – something that no-one else has. Otherwise each of your books will be just
another talented but unremarkable girl in the dance troupe.

Your point of difference can be derived from almost anything - characters, narrative, plot,
setting, style, voice. Maybe it’s the main character’s special trait, or a new take on an historical
event.

These days, given the enormous number of titles published each year, your book needs
something different to stand out from the crowd. Something that gets people talking.

Brand psychosis continues to rage ever more strongly because of the burgeoning celebrity
culture. Craft a ‘beauty spot’ seamlessly into your stories, and you’ll give readers and media
alike plenty to remember you by.

Examples of authors with unique points of difference:

Stephanie Meyer:
A contemporary example is the set of ‘Twilight’ novels by Stephanie Meyer, who took the meme
of Teen Romance and blended it seamlessly and uniquely with the meme of Vampire
mythology.

JK Rowling:
Another example is author JK Rowling who uniquely blended the meme of ‘English public
schools’ with the ‘Art of Wizardry’ meme.

Agatha Christie:
This is the same brand-name phenomenon that Agatha Christie used to attract her crowds of
fanatical ‘Agatha-holics’. She did it twice. Once with her unique Poirot private detective
character, and again with her ‘little old lady as sleuth’ Miss Marple. She sold over 4 billion
copies across her 80 titles.

Daniel Handler:
Daniel Handler writes under the Victorian pseudonym ‘Lemony Snickett’. He has sold over 51
million copies of his Dickensian styled books that follow the travails of the ‘unfortunate’
Baudelaire children.

Handler has sent his book sales far into the stratosphere with his tongue-in-cheek, self-
deprecating publicity. He affectionately mocks the Dickensian style, pleading in relentlessly
gloomy tones, “I implore you to never read these books, they’re far too depressing…”

This amusingly bleak stance is his global brand. No-one else makes this pitch. It is unique, and
continues to create multitudes of ‘Lemony-holics’.

3. Share The ‘World Around Your Story’ With Your Community

There’s no need to build a community entirely from scratch, because the people you wish to
attract – potential readers and supporters interested in your genre – already gather in groups in
many places online.

Potential readers and supporters are already gathered on book blogs, in reader forums, at
online book club events, on Twitter, on Facebook, on Google+, on Goodreads, and a wide
variety of other places online.

From these places, you attract them back to your home base – your blog and ultimately your
books – by communicating with them in a meaningful way that forms a relationship. (As
opposed to trying to directly pitch your book to them, which is largely ineffective.)

You create and share your own engaging content based around your book – the ‘World Around
Your Story’. This isn’t just about your book, but the entire related world. This can include
articles and blog posts, interviews, podcasts, images, video and much more.

You also share other people’s material – including other authors, so you help them to succeed
as well. It’s so much better to work together than in isolation. The power of reciprocity in the
writer’s community also means they will help you in return.

In the next chapter, we’ll look at the right way – and the wrong way – to go about these
interactions you’ll have with your reader community.
 Chapter 6
The Right Way (And The Wrong Way) To Communicate
With Potential Readers & Supporters

The word ‘Platform’ suggests it’s a stage from which you shout your sales message.

This is how most writers think Twitter or Facebook should be used – to shout out the title of their
book as if it was a billboard, TV commercial or megaphone. The temptation to do so is huge.
Isn’t that what marketing is?

Actually, no it isn’t.

Your Author Platform is a set of social media connection points for personal interaction, which is
where social media is at its most powerful and effective.

That’s why it’s called social media.

‘Attracting’ Readers Is The Solution, Not ‘Pushing’ Your Books At Them

If you met someone at a party, would you begin the conversation by saying “Hi there, I’ve just
written this great book, please buy it”? Of course you wouldn’t. That’s not how social
interactions take place. Instead, you’d engage their interest with conversation first, discovering
and sharing common interests, and gradually piquing their interest in your writing.

That’s the right way to use your Author Platform too.

Engage First, Sell Second

The idea is to personally connect and have a conversation with your audience to gain the
attention and interest you want for your books, and build your reader community.

These conversations are not for the purpose directly selling a book to that person right then and
there. It’s a much more indirect approach, and one that brings long-term benefits.

Engage your audience first, then sell to them second. This is the real ‘secret’ of the Author
Platform.

Create And Share Fascinating Content That Your Readers Would Find
Interesting

The way you initiate these conversations with potential readers and supporters is by creating
fascinating content about the world of your genre – the ‘World Around your Story’ – and inviting
readers to discuss it (using social media as the place to do the inviting).

The content you create will be highly engaging for the readers because, like you, they’re avid
fans of the genre. They’ll discuss it, contribute to it, agree or disagree with any points made
etc. The point is that they are drawn into your ‘community’, and become engaged.

You can create articles, quotes, videos, podcasts or images that demonstrate your personal
interest in the genre and in the various subjects and themes mentioned in your books.

This content can be recycled and customised for books, essays, poems, blog content,
newsletters, articles, reviews, short stories, reviews, updates, interviews, videos, photographs,
blog posts, Tweets, Facebook posts, guest blog posts, podcasts, and competitions.

Make Your Books Discoverable As Part Of The Conversation

As you draw potential readers and supporters in with this interesting content, you make your
books discoverable as part of the conversation.

For example, if you’ve written a fantasy novel about a warrior princess, then you could write a
blog post entitled ‘The Top Four Warrior Women In Books & Movies’, which would rank your
favourite female warrior characters in popular culture.
The post could then go on to discuss how one of these famous female characters was the
inspiration for the lead character in your own book.

There are thousands of ways to generate interest by linking virtually anything in your genre to
the ideas in your book – for example to relevant news and seasonal events like Halloween, and
also fashion, latest movies, sports events, science, TV soaps, weddings, pets, travel, flowers,
gardens and food to name just a few.

If you think about it, almost any subject mentioned in your story is game for a blog post or other
places where you put your content. It all leads inevitably back to your book. Even though it
may only be mentioned briefly, the connection is made.

All of the sub-genre people you have collected in your social media accounts are already highly
interested in this subject. So when they see the link and description you put out there they’ll
come across to your blog to read the article. They’ll then come across your book in the article
and on the sidebar of your blog, and in many cases they will buy.

And they won’t see this as obnoxious ‘marketing’ either because it makes perfect sense for the
book to be there. They will also be in a far more receptive frame of mind.

Put Yourself In Your Readers’ Shoes & Make A Connection With Their
Identity

What is the secret thing that people like you and everyone else in your sub-genre all think and
believe but never say? Say it.

This is extremely engaging, and makes strong, long-term connections. This is a great way to
captivate a visitor with a slice of pithy, well thought through philosophy that the reader can
directly relate to their own lives. Reader curiosity about your book will do the rest. And don’t
forget that there’s also a ton of ideas that will be sparked by the interesting people you meet.

Also remember that the content you create should not be all about YOU or your books, but
rather about the genre, the area of common interest – things that the community would actually
be interested in. All your content should be designed for them, not for your own self-
aggrandisement.

Always keep this in mind: If I was a reader, would I be interested in this stuff?

On your Twitter account for example, your tweets should be a rich blend of interaction, with
some links to your own blog posts, but also links to other interesting and relevant things
elsewhere on the web, links to other authors’ blogs and many RT (Retweets) of other people’s
tweets.

Make sure you also share and promote other authors’ work. It’s much better to work together
than in isolation, and the power of reciprocity means that they will help you too. Whether it’s an
author or a book blogger or a reader, try to find at least one new person in that genre
community each week that you can help in some way, and watch the interest in you explode.
It will pay off, because your Platform is designed with an ‘all roads lead to Rome’ configuration.
Everything you do and say eventually leads back to your books, bringing readers, supporters,
book bloggers, reviewers, agents and publishers with them.

Don’t Expect Miracles Overnight. But If You Steadily Work At It, Your
Platform Will Pay Off

Don’t expect to start making hundreds of extra sales overnight just because you set up a
Facebook page.

Instead, understand that if you take the time to develop a strong overall Author Platform, and
steadily engage with more and more potential readers and supporters in the way we’ve
discussed, you’ll start to see a real impact in the following weeks and months.

The more work you put into making those connections now, the more it will pay off later on –
sometimes in ways that aren’t even apparent to you right now.

For this reason, the earlier you start building your Author Platform, the better. In fact, if you can
make connections and connect with readers and supporters well before you launch your book,
that’s ideal.

An example of a successful Author Platform in action:

An instructive example is Rebecca Skloot and her book, ‘The Immortal Life Of Henrietta Lacks’
– the real-life story of a woman whose biological cells were taken and used for key medical
research that still has a major impact today.

Author Rebecca spent years building her Author Platform and making connections as she was
writing the book, starting absolutely from scratch. Because of her hard work putting these
connections together as she was writing it, she ended up on all the major TV networks and
mass media on the day of her book launch.

Not only is Rebecca’s book a great example of how an Author Platform can pay huge dividends,
it’s also illustrative of the overall approach to book promotion I’ve been talking about.

Instead of trying to ‘pitch her book’, she launched with great success by simply telling the ‘World
Around Your Story’ to get attention.
The ‘World Around Your Story’ was centered on Rebecca’s burning belief that everyone should
hear the incredible story of this woman who had changed so many lives for the better, but
whose poverty-stricken family had never been compensated.

Rebecca’s passion for getting this story out there burned like a flame behind every word she
uttered, as you can see if you watch the book trailer video. That’s what attracted so much
interest from readers and supporters – telling the World Around Your Story, instead of shouting
“My book is great, please buy it!”

In fact, I was so taken by her dedication that I wrote this blog post about it:

The Best Book Trailer I’ve Seen In Years, And Why It Works… (Includes the video)

In the next chapter, we’ll look at how to get a Traditional Publishing deal for your book.
 Chapter 7
How To Get A Traditional Publishing Deal

Is Getting A Traditional Publisher Still Possible?

The answer is a resounding yes. But before going any further, let me repeat what I said in
Chapter 3, because it is key to getting a traditional publishing deal:

It’s the ‘promotion-ready’ authors who are picked first. Given a choice between two books of
equal quality to choose from, a publisher will always pick the author who has already
demonstrated they have some online promotional capability and can help promote their book.

This means that authors must learn the ropes long before they even think of approaching a
publisher. In sum, you need an ‘Author Platform’, even to get a traditional publisher.

Do I Need A Literary Agent To Get A Traditional Deal?

Traditional Print Publishers do not generally accept submissions from the public.

Literary agents act as a filter. They pan for the nuggets of gold amongst the huge number of
manuscripts submitted. When you have a presence online with an author platform, it will be of
considerable interest because it helps them to influence a publisher:

“This is an author who can not only write well, but can help promote her books.”

Agents have many books to consider, and when they have to choose between two books of
equal merit, they’ll choose the author who has the ability to promote. No contest.

The first thing the agent will do is Google you. They’ll want to know who you are, so your
platform is also a form of CV and reference.

They’ll analyze you to see how much influence you have online. What presence do you have?
A manuscript alone is not going to cut it. An author who is completely invisible when searched
for online and clearly unwilling to be involved is less likely to make headway in attracting a
publishing deal.
So it’s best to save time and have it already quantified for them. More than anything, you need
‘crowd numbers’ to quote – a display of social proof that demonstrates that there is already
interest from the public in what you are writing.

Include in an agent’s query letter the facts about your online ‘assets’ and followings. The more
assets you have with a growing following and verifiable visitor numbers the more impressed an
agent and publisher will be. All of these assets will have verifiable numbers of visitors in the
same way that your number of Twitter followers is easily verifiable.

Once you’re confident you can demonstrate that you have self-promotion capability, (and
building that capability could take a minimum of many months to set up), the professional
pathway is to write and send a query letter requesting representation of your book.

This is still required. You’ll need to read and comply with an agent’s submission guidelines, and
they’ll have these on their website.

Legendary literary agent Donald Maass is the author of many novels, has also written several
craft books for authors, and says it best:

Quoting Don Maass:

“Success is in the Story … remember the purpose of the query letter is not to convince
me that you’re a breakout author. Its purpose is to get me to read your work. If the query
letter accomplishes that, it’s done its job. The manuscript itself will take over from there.”

Important Note: I include his agency link here not for pitching, but because his advice is salient.

http://maassagency.com/

The most immediately useful information on the subject I have seen for constructing an effective
query letter is a free book by literary agent Noah Lukeman:

‘How To Write a Great Query Letter’

Download it for free here: http://WriteaGreatQuery.com

An Alternative Way To Persuade A Literary Agent To Consider Your Work

If you are having trouble finding a literary agent, an alternative pathway is to attend seminars
and other industry events that they’ll be attending. You’ll be able to meet agents, discuss areas
of common interest, and to see if they are a good fit for you and your work. Research who will
be at the events, and decide before attending who you will connect with socially.

If the agent has met you, they’re far more likely to consider your work when you submit it.
 Chapter 8
How To Self-Publish Your Book On The Kindle

How to get your book onto the Amazon Kindle™ and other
eReader devices such as the Barnes & Noble’s Nook™
the Apple iPad™ the iPhone™

When publishing a book online using the various ePublishing options available, there are a
number of complexities. Some operators in the marketplace blithely understate this complexity,
but there is a significant amount of know-how required.

The upside is that Amazon and other distributors do accept all fiction eBooks, and offer
relatively straightforward contracts and royalty payments. For example, Amazon pays 70% of
the list price of every eBook sold if you sell your book above the $2.99 price point. But below
that price, Amazon pays only 30%.

The reality is that some authors (this may include you) find it extremely difficult to work alone.
The work of writing a book in itself is a monumental task. Having to then introduce the book to
the marketplace as well can often prove to be too great a burden.

But if you really want to attempt to self-publish an eBook here is what you need to know:

The Most Effective Way To e-Publish Your Book

You need to distribute your eBook as widely as possible by uploading your book and selling it in
two distinct market places:
1. Amazon Kindle - approximately 50%
2. Everywhere else (Such as for iPad, Nook & Kobo) - approximately 50%

You’ll need to go through the process of uploading your book to Amazon, and then to the rest of
the distributors.

Here’s how it is done.

The most efficient pathway is a combination of Amazon KPD (Kindle Direct Publishing), and a
publishing company called Smashwords, who distribute to the other non-Amazon outlets,
including B&N Nook. It is up to you in both cases to format your book and have an effective,
attractive cover designed. (The billboard for your book) These two distributors account for
about 90% of the global eBook distribution network. So you only need do two uploads of your
book – one to each of these companies.

Amazon charge 30% of your earnings, Smashwords charge 15%.

1. Amazon KDP (Kindle Direct Publishing)

Information and the techniques for uploading your book and getting it published on the Kindle
can be found here. https://kdp.amazon.com/self-publishing/signin. Amazon gives you 70%
royalties on all books sold over $2.99.

Kindle formatting guidelines:

https://kdp.amazon.com/self-publishing/help?topicId=A2GF0UFHIYG9VQ

This web page gives details of the actual book formatting.

Also see the menu in the side bar for instructions about uploading and previewing your book
before it’s published. This is so you can make corrections and make sure it is rendering
correctly, looking readable and appealingly laid out, with correct typeface and font sizes.

Also check that the Cover, TOC, and ISBN number are all in the right places.
Uploading to Amazon

Home page to sign up for the Amazon Kindle store:

https://kdp.amazon.com/self-publishing/signin

Keywords:

You will need a set of 5 keywords to enter when uploading your book to Amazon for the Kindle.
Keywords have a bearing when buyers are looking for books on Amazon. They help to gain
extra sales each week if entered properly when you sign up.

How to find the best keywords to use:

To find the most ‘searched for’ 1, 2 & 3 word descriptions on Google for your book genre, use
Google’s Adwords tool.

Type ‘External Adwords Tool’ into Google to find it. Once open, type in your main genre, and
then pick out which of the most popular keywords listed (high up the list) best describe your
book. It will take while to familiarize yourself with Google’s keyword tool, but is worth it to get
the best most effective words.

2. Smashwords

http://smashwords.com

Smashwords e-Publishes your book in most places other than Amazon including Apple iPad,
iBookstores in 31 countries, Barnes & Noble, Sony, Kobo, Baker & Taylor, Blio + Axis360
service for public libraries, the Diesel eBook Store, and Ebook Eros.

Smashwords also distributes to mobile e-reading apps such as Stanza on the iPhone and iPad,
Aldiko and Word-Player on Android devices.

Smashwords take 15% of your earnings from all the other sales sites.

Smashwords formatting guidelines

Smashwords provides a formatting style guide written by their founder, Mark Coker. It’s
downloadable for Kindle, PDF, Epub, and RTF formats – take your pick.

You’ll need to read this – once again to be sure your book(s) are correctly optimized for the
various reader devices, so that they render properly and are actually readable.
I repeat. It’s important to be sure that everything is done correctly.

http://www.smashwords.com/books/view/52

Note: Smashwords also have a lengthy FAQ section on their site that covers many of the
questions you’re likely to ask.

http://www.smashwords.com/about/supportfaq#Formatting

Uploading to Smashwords

Home page to sign up for Smashwords and upload:

http://smashwords.com/about/how_to_publish_on_smashwords

Your Book’s ‘ISBN’ Number

It is not vital to have an ISBN number, but simply useful. It’s an abbreviation of ‘International
Standard Book Number’. It comes with a barcode, and has the advantage of enabling
publishers and distributors to easily catalog the books they have in stock, or that they’ve sold,
and many other bibliographic processes.

Amazon and Smashwords will both assign you one for free, but they will list themselves as the
‘Publisher’ which may not suit you best in the long run. (What if in future you want to use a
different publisher? Or your own company?)
If you want total control and have your own company listed as the publisher it has its own
complexities and expense. You can learn about how to buy your own United States ISBN
numbers here: http://www.isbn.org/standards/home/index.asp

Book Cover Art – A Crucial Element Of Your Promotional Activity

Firstly, your cover is the ‘sales billboard’ for your book that works effectively at thumbnail size on
Amazon. A reader will often within seconds accept or reject it based on the cover image.

Your book cover needs an image and title type that sells itself in three ways.

1. The genre of the book must be obvious. e.g. Historical Fiction. Remember too that it has to
work at a tiny size in the online book stores.

2. The Title Text must hint at or portray the story, or at least have headers that match a series.

3. Needs to have a consistent visual design across a series.

Amazon’s book cover art guidelines:

https://kdp.amazon.com/self-publishing/help?topicId=A2J0TRG6OPX0VM

Bestseller Labs illustrated article on creating the right book cover:

http://bestsellerlabs.com/the-billboard-that-can-make-or-break-your-books-success

Promotional Information:

Amazon offer free promotion that you can combine with your Author Platform
activity.

Amazon’s promotional program is called ‘KDP Select’.

The program uses promotional tactics such as parading your book in many places on Amazon’s
marketplace, and giving your book away for free for a very limited time to develop interest. The
catch: You have to make your book exclusive to Amazon for 90 days.

Twitter is invaluable for sparking the Amazon Kindle Select promotional program by sending
people to your books at specific strategic moments during the 5 day free promotional period.
You don’t need to send masses of people to Amazon - your work is simply to light the
promotional fire.

Important Note:

Remember that you need to remain permanently in control of your own destiny as an author and
of your sales numbers.

You need an independent, long-term home on the internet that you own and build throughout
your career, and avoid being increasingly reliant on a system owned by someone else – such as
Amazon, or Twitter.

So as well as writing excellent books, and growing your author platform, the on-going build-up of
your independent brand via your blog and a subscriber e-mail list remains the assured path for
your author brand and book sales success.
 Chapter 9
The Incredible Opportunity That Awaits You

There’s has never been a better time to be an author.

Not only has ePublishing made it possible for anyone to get a book out there and selling, the
power of social media means that word about a book can spread further and faster than ever
before. Plus, thanks to e-readers such as the Kindle, there are far more readers. And when
you also consider that eBooks never go ‘out of print’ and keep selling forever, it represents an
unprecedented opportunity for authors.

Whether you’re self-publishing your own book on the Kindle, or trying to get a traditional
publishing deal, the real challenge you face is making your books visible.

The way to achieve this visibility is by steadily growing a vibrant ‘Author Platform’, and using it
to interact with potential new readers and supporters online.

This forms a community of buyer fans who will not only buy your book, but will continue to buy
all your subsequent books as you write them, meaning you don’t have to start over looking for
new buyers. These fans will also help you spread the word about your books, via word-of-
mouth, with increasing enthusiasm because of your continued online interaction with them.

The secret is to have real conversations with people online, provide them with fascinating
content and the ‘Story around your Story’. That’s the pathway to gaining attention and
increasing sales. And if you’re seeking a publisher, an Author Platform demonstrates that you
are ‘Promotion-ready’, increasing your chances of securing a deal.
It’s important to become expert in just a few social media channels to start with, and run an
author blog. More than that and you’ll be overwhelmed. My own success paths are Twitter,
Facebook, my blog, and an email list.

Furthermore, I understand how frustrating it can be when starting out as an author. Where do
you start? To help solve this, I’ve written a Twitter mini-course for writers:

Twitter For Authors

‘How To Use Twitter To Find Readers And Increase Your Book Sales’
A beautifully written set of powerful tutorials showing how to use Twitter
to successfully promote your work. More about the course here:

>> http://bestsellerlabs.com/twitter-for-authors

If you need further help, please contact me at Bestseller Labs

or on Twitter. I’m always there.

http://Twitter.com/JonathanGunson