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Welcome. What we’ll cover 16 best practices of the bestselling indie authors Learn to: e-publish with greater pride and professionalism Reach more readers and sell more books Who this presentation is for Aspiring authors, published authors, publishers No technical experience required!.
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Welcome What we’ll cover 16 best practices of the bestselling indie authors Learn to: e-publish with greater pride and professionalism Reach more readers and sell more books Who this presentation is for Aspiring authors, published authors, publishers No technical experience required!
My wife is a former soap opera reporter. Together we wrote a novel about the soap opera industry.
We were repped by a top NY literacy agency. We had a great agent.
2004-2005: Publishers Said “No” • Despite great effort from our agent, every major NY publisher said NO (TWICE!) • Previous soap-opera themed novels had performed poorly
My Epiphany • Big publishers unable, unwilling and disinterested to take a risk on every author • Publishing industry was failing to serve • Authors • Readers • The future of books • Judging books based on perceived commercial merit • Publishers guess what readers want to buy • Spaghetti against the wall
I evaluated our options • The rational option • Admit we sucked, accept fate as failed authors • The irrational option • Believe in ourselves • Try to fix the problem
I Realized Publishers Provided Three Important and Essential Services I asked myself: what if I could provide this as a free service, what if I could give every writer a chance? - 2 - Retail Distribution - 1 - Printing Press - 3 - Expertise - Best practices knowledge
My solution: Smashwords • FREE eBook Publishing Platform • Free ebook printing press • Opened distribution to major ebook retailers and libraries • Free educational resources – best practices knowledge - to help writers publish like professionals
How Smashwords Works • UPLOAD • Upload an .epub or Microsoft Word file, formatted to our Smashwords Style Guide • SELL IN OUR STORE • Ready for immediate sale online • Earn 85% net (about 80% list) • DISTRIBUTE • Distribution to major retailers • Earn 60% list
Smashwords Distribution NetworkUpload/Update Once, Distribute Globally
Platforms like Smashwords make ePublishing and eDistribution Easy…
The Power Curve: Most books don’t sell well Goal: Every best practice you implement well causes your book’s performance to shift to the left (increases sales rank), leading to an exponential increase in earnings. $ Author earnings and/or sales rank
Let’s review the best practices of the best-selling indie authors
#1 Your best marketing is a great book • With the power to publish comes the responsibility to act like a great publisher • Honor your reader with a great book • Move reader to an emotionally satisfying extreme • Wow them. Turn readers into evangelists • Be fanatical about quality • Edit, revise, edit, revise, repeat, proof • Leverage beta readers • Readers prefer L O N G E R books
Longer Books Sell Better! Visualize the power curve overlaid on this chart. Books ranked in the top 10, 50 or 100 will sell exponentially more units than books ranked 1,000 or worse
#2 Create a Great Cover Image Invest in a quality cover image Your first impression on path to discovery Look professional Should arrest reader with thumb nail Must resonate with target audience Know your target with precision Makes an honest promise to the target reader
Great covers make a promise Horror fans want to be scared. This cover promises to scare you, so it’s a great cover.
Great covers make a promise This is a scary post-apocalyptic novel. Note the bloody hands as two friends walk down the road.
Great covers make a promise Target reader: Teens and new adults looking to experience sweet romance.
Great covers make a promise Fiction is about fantasy. Target reader: Will appeal to adults looking for a hot and sexy interracial romance story featuring a powerful billionaire (and probably an equally powerful woman). Great cover.
Great covers make a promise Target reader: Hankering for a fantasy involving a hunky shipwrecked bad boy pirate (comes with a chest full of loot!). Another great cover.
Great covers make a promise Target reader: One look and you instantly know this is science fiction with lots of action. Images speak to us faster and easier than words.
Great covers make a promise Target reader: Will instantly appeal to readers who enjoy Westerns.
Great covers make a promise Target reader: Fantasy readers with strong female protagonist and werecreatures. Although fantasy is mostly read by women, this author enjoys strong female readership because he features strong women. Know your target audience.
And now a case study…The evolution of one cover A great aspect of indie ebook publishing is that your book (and cover) can evolve over time. This romance author decided this cover wasn’t making an appropriate promise to her target reader, so she upgraded it to…
to this cover This cover is better, but it still did a poor job of making a promise to her target reader. You wouldn’t know this was a romance. Despite the poor cover, the author was selling books every day and getting great reader reviews (because she’s an awesome writer). She decided to upgrade her cover to the following….
… to this cover… This cover makes a great promise. Although the cover is unconventional (when this is thumbnail size, the title and author name are invisible), the author stumbled upon a brilliant discovery about the importance of the the cover making an appropriate promise. Look what happened when Smashwords delivered the new title to Apple iBooks ….
The cover sparked a breakout at Apple Daily unit sales at Apple. A simple cover change sparked a breakout. We now know the prior cover was creating unnecessary friction. It was scaring away readers. And look what happened next (for a book that had been on the market for five months already!)…
The cover sparked a breakout and two weeks later the book landed on the NY Times Bestseller ListShe has since continued to evolve her cover to make it better and better.
#3 Publish Another Great Book • The best-selling authors on Smashwords offer deep backlists • Each new ebook offers opportunity to • cross-promote other titles • build trust with your reader • build your brand
#4 Give (some of) Your Books away for Free • If you have a deep backlist, offer at least one full-length book for free • Makes it easier for readers to take a chance on an unknown, untrusted author • ~39X more downloads • Turbocharges a series • Free works for standalone promos too • The highest grossing authors at Smashwords offer at least one free book
#5 Patience is a Virtue • Ebooks develop differently • Traditional print books – big sell-in, then yanked from shelves, then sales go to zero • Ebooks – can start small and grow slowly before breakout • Ebooks are immortal • Never go out of print • Never unpublish (remove) your book • When your book lands at retailer, it’s a seedling, nourish it • Let’s look at some examples…
