While cranking out lots of poor quality titles may bring in money in the short term, it won’t get you on the New York Times bestseller list and it won’t build an enduring author brand. Instead, work with bestselling authors or authors who want to be bestselling authors.
Read Books on Craft
One of the few industries where the masters share their secrets
- Start with the memoirs of successful authors
- On Writing by Stephen King
- Bird by Bird by Anne Lamott
- Chris Fox, Randy Ingermanson, Joanna Penn, and James Scott Bell
Trackbacks/Pingbacks
How to Create an Email Onboarding Drip Campaign
- The 5 Baby-Step Platform Building Process
- Work
- Novel-length work
- You can’t expect a toddler to run a marathon
- Introduce the book, and share a working copy
Count the Cost
Determine how much time and money you can invest (Commandment #5).
- A time-poor author will choose a different option than an author who is cash-poor and time-rich.
- Cash-rich authors may hire someone to build a website while a time -rich author will learn how to do it herself.
Determine Your Options
Know what your options are
- Measure your actions to make better decisions
- Listen to podcasts like Novel Marketing
- Comparing options is nothing new
- You can’t weigh your options if you don’t measure them
- Use the data you gather to make informed decisions
How do you find your way through the marketing advice smog? Data
Experiment and measure your marketing
- Track thy time, track thy money, track thine efforts
- Once you know what works and what does not, you can cut what doesn’t work and redirect your time, money, and energy toward what does
Write the Back Cover Copy First
If you want to have followers, you must first be a servant.
- Write an initial version of your back cover copy before writing your book.
- This will help you understand why the book is worth reading before you write it.
Artifice
It is hard to make real friends on Facebook because people only see what you want them to see
- This leads to a false projection of your true self
- Facebook groups can be a great place to get started
- But Facebook groups are no substitute for actual friendships with fellow authors
Thou shalt write for thy reader, not for thyself
The difference between a book and a journal is the audience. You write a journal for yourself. You don’t write a book to thrill your reader.
- Only a few authors are willing to write for their readers and murder the fluff
Own Your Website
Your website is your home base. It is the hub of the wheel. Everything else you do online should bring readers back to your website to buy your book or join your email list.
- If you decide to start blogging or podcasting, your blog and podcast content can live on your website.
Pace Yourself
It takes time and money to develop your craft and build your platform. Pick a pace you can afford to maintain for ten years.
Get a Job
Many jobs can make you money and help you improve your writing, publishing, and marketing skills.
- Editor
- Blogger
- Virtual Assistant (VA) Marketer
- Webmaster
- Being a VA gives you a chance to learn from top authors while simultaneously making money.
Thou shalt not publish thy first book first
Many authors try too hard for too long to get that first book published, and it leads to author burnout
- Do yourself a favor and let the first book be the learning experience it was meant to be, and then write the next book.
Keep writing
Bestselling authors sit down and write even when they don’t feel like it
- Good marketing can’t fix a bad book
- A good book with bad marketing gets lost in the noise and slowly dies unread in obscurity
- The first three commandments are about readers and craft, and the last one is about marketing
Own Your Email List
Once they visit your website you want them to join your email list.
What should you do?
Build your platform on land you own
- You you own your digital land when you can move without consequences
- Move your website to WP Engine or ConvertKit
- If you want to move away from Facebook, you lose everything and have to start from scratch
How Author Media Helps
The Five Year Plan is devoted to helping you develop Olympic levels of writing and marketing.
Know Thy Reader
Pick at least one human and write for that human.
- Imaginary friends always like what you write, but when you ask for feedback, you’re only talking to yourself.
- A real beta reader is someone else’s brain.
Obscure No More: Obtain and Engage Your First 1000 Fans
The Framework of Building a Platform
- Zero to 4 Figures: How to Gain Your First Loyal Fan and Build Toward 1,000 More
- Practical advice on moving out of mental concepts of an audience into practical steps to build an audience
Create a Budget
Set aside only the time and money that you can afford to set aside.
Featured Patron: CLR Peterson, author of Lucia’s Renaissance
Heresy is fatal in late Renaissance Italy, so only a suicidal zealot would whisper the name of Martin Luther
Thou shalt not be false to thy own brand
Your brand is the story you tell about yourself and the story others tell about you.
- It takes a lifetime to build a reputation. It takes only one mistake to destroy one. As you make promises to your reader, remember that your reader expects you to keep those promises.
Thou shalt own thine own platform
Free platforms tend to work only for a short time. After their short-lived usefulness, several things may occur: they go out of business, they start charging you to talk with your readers, they get flooded with spam, etc.
- Moving from free platform to free platform is exhausting.
Listen to Thy Reader
Why do you read books? What do you like about them? Who writes the books you like to read? Where do you hang out online? What are your pain points that my story or nonfiction book could help alleviate?
Thou shalt not dig thy well whilst thou art thirsty
If your worldview says you must always choose the cheapest option, you won’t make it in publishing
- Building with bricks is more expensive and time-consuming, but it’s much sturdier in the end
Thou shalt surround yourself with savvy authors
The savvier your friends are, the more you will learn
What About To Kill a Mockingbird?
Harper Lee started by writing short stories for campus magazines, then wrote a book titled Go Set a Watchman, which was “unfit for publication.”
- She kept writing and didn’t publish her first book first.
- Half a century later, an edited version of Go Set was published, and readers hated it.
Announcement
The course will officially launch in the fall of 2021, but I will soon be looking for some beta students to go through the course as I make it.
- These beta students will not be the first to access the course, but they will get special Q&A calls with me where I will answer platform questions and get their feedback.
Thou shalt weigh thine options before investing in marketing
Any marketing activity will help you sell at least one book.
- But just because something helps you sell books doesn’t mean it is a wise investment for you. It’s better to ask, “Will this help me sell more books than the next best alternative?”
How Author Media Helps
Host a handful of mastermind groups. Each group is limited to 10 authors, and they meet monthly over Zoom.
- They also share a Slack Workspace where they answer each other’s questions throughout the month, cheer progress, and keep up.
Serve thy Reader
Readers can tell when authors don’t care about them
- Caring about your reader isn’t something you tack on at the end as a promotional tactic. It is where you must start
- Figure out what kind of book your reader wants to read and then write it
Commandment #1: Love thy reader as you love thy book
Books only matter when the words exist in a reader’s mind.
- If readers won’t crack open your book, it’s nothing more than dead trees and ink. You owe it to the trees to create a book that readers will want to read.
Ten Book Marketing Commandments
What does it take to become a bestselling author?
- After working with New York Times bestselling authors for nearly a decade, I have learned what works and what does not. Here are ten book marketing commandments that I have put together into a guide for authors.
Submit Your Writing to Expert Feedback
Many people in this industry can help you become a better writer, but none of them will help you if you’re unwilling to share your work
- While it is hard to get feedback on a 100,000-word novel, it is easy to get it on a short story – give it a try and see what you think.
Thou shalt persist in thy craft
Improving your writing is harder than you think. It’s the difference between running to catch the bus and running in the Olympics
- While everyone can write, few can write well. Training in the craft of writing is not easier than training for the Olympics.
Envy
Envy keeps us from learning from each other’s successes.
- Guard against it. Envy can become a barrier between you and the authors who can teach you
- If you want to be friends with savvy authors, you must reject your tendency to envy.
Thou shalt measure thy marketing
Every book, author, and audience is different.
Pride
Pride keeps authors from sharing their failures and asking questions.
- When we share our mistakes, other authors share their mistakes and we all learn from each other’s failures.
- Authors who embrace humility find there is no limit to what they can learn the easy way.
How Author Media Helps
The Ten Commandments of Book Publishing aren’t a step-by-step plan. They are a set of guidelines. If you follow them, you will have the freedom to try a lot of things.
