Brand Architect

We, authirs discuss a lot about whether we should stick exclusively to Amazon or our books should be sold on all platforms available out there. I decided to talk to Mark Coker, who is an author himself, but what is more important for this particular case he is the founder of Smashwords. Smashwords was founded in 2008. It is a free ebook publishing and distribution platform, which works with over 100k authors and publishers.

Preorders and their benefits

Transitioning from Amamzon to other platforms

Why Smashwords is the best choice

Writing and marketing series 

Every writer in the world has a right to publish a book.

The most important piece of the puzzle is to write a super awesome book.

If your book is only good - the good is not good enough anymore.

The book has to take the readers to the emotionally satisfying extreme.

Readers are reading either for an emotional experience or for an intellectual experience. (sometimes the combination of both)

There has never been a better time to be a writer.

Smashwords

Smashwords Style Guide

Also - consider signing up for the Self-Publishing Success Summit, which is the best online summit on the topic with amazing line-up. On that summit 37 World-Changing Authors & Entrepreneurs Reveal How to Write, Market & Publish Your  First Book AND Use It To Get To 6 Figures

Write 2B Read Closed Facebook Group

Today I decided to be completely honest and share my struggles with you. And the reason for this is not to ask for petty or anything. I simply thought that some of you might have been going through the same thing and we could possibly figure out how to overcome some of those struggles.

So, periodically I am getting writer’s doubts and I start questioning myself if I can really write? If what I write is good enough? If I have any potential at all? And if my writing is worth anything.

These doubts became really strong recently. The reason is - I have enrolled in Writer’s Bootcamp and starting from the 1st of this month we are writing up different exercises… Then we read,  provide feedback, critique…

The ultimate goal of the course - or at least how I see it -  is to learn writing well, to make sure that your quality is high and that you learn the craft. But it’s a painful process. I guess any growth is…

It’s painful because in the beginning you start realizing where you stand now. And now… having objectively evaluated where I am, I am not happy about that. So now the doubts are no longer about if I am good or not… because I already know that I’m not… at least yet. The doubt now is about the future… it’s about whether I will be able to master the craft and ensure the quality I’d like my writing to have.

I think the bootcamp was just a catalyst. We usually have writer’s doubt coming back to us when we don’t see results… and when we don’t see result we lose the motivation to carry on. And I guess when we lose motivation that’s when we have to push harder… otherwise we may end up sliding down the spiral… and coming back up will be harder than pushing a bit more from where we are now…

So every time I get into the stage when things don’t grow and I don’t see results I get disappointed. Right now, looking at what I’ve done so far I realize that things haven’t moved much… my podcast has not grown from what it was few months ago, I have not finished my book and I have abandoned my fiction…

And what’s the hardest to admit is that it’s completely my fault. I should have worked harder, I should have written more and I should have put aside my humbleness and promoted more what I’ve already done…

So today I spend some time and went back to my reviews. I read the reviews you guys left for my podcast and I went to Amazon and read the reviews that were left for my fiction books. Usually it helps me get on track and reminds me that there are some people who need what I do and that my time and efforts are not wasted.

That made me think that maybe writer’s doubt grows when there is lack of encouragement around. [spp-tweet tweet="Writers, who go through the painful process of growth are vulnerable."] They need an extra hug and a positive affirmation.

Meanwhile, let’s chin up, pull ourselves together and work harder.

Also - consider signing up for the Self-Publishing Success Summit, which is the best online summit on the topic with amazing line-up. On that summit 37 World-Changing Authors & Entrepreneurs Reveal How to Write, Market & Publish Your  First Book AND Use It To Get To 6 Figures

Write 2B Read Closed Facebook Group

Today my guest is Nick Stephenson. Nick was born and raised in England. He is a fiction author and novelist, writing in the mysteries and thrillers genre. His approach to writing is to hit hard, hit fast, and leave as few spelling errors as possible. We are discussing how to gain the first 10k readers and what Nick did exactly in order to make full time income from writing fiction books. Nick shares practical and simple tips, which can be replicated easily with even only one written book. Nick is also speaking at the Self-Publishing Success Summit, which is the best online summit on the topic with amazing line-up. On that summit 37 World-Changing Authors & Entrepreneurs Reveal How to Write, Market & Publish Your  First Book AND Use It To Get To 6 Figures

The statement "The best marketing is writing your next book" is a myth. N1 focus should be getting more readers sign up to your e-mail list and building relationship with them. Offer reader magnet they can get in exchange to their e mail address: something related to your books. Set up marketing system in pace, which later will work on autopilot, so you will have time for writing.

Nick's website First 10K Readers course free videos and case study Write 2B Read Closed Facebook Group

Today I am talking to Tom Morkes. Tom is a West Point grad, Iraq War veteran and CEO of Insurgent Publishing. He is the author of the new book Collaborate: The New Rules for Launching a Business Online.

Tom was Write 2B Read podcast guest in episode 49 and you can hear it at this link.

Crowdfunding is not good for building an audience.

If your reach isn't there and if you don't have built audience in place the crowdfunding campaign will not be successful.

Crowdfunding is a way to create an event around your book.

There are many growth hacking tools that will help you grow your readership and increase book sales.

Tom's website

The Growth Hacker's Guide to the Galaxy (support the kickstarter campaign here)

Indiegogo

Kickstarter

Publishizer

Inkshares

Write 2B Read Closed Facebook Group

Don't miss the opportunity to join me and other Write 2B Read podcast listeners at our Facebook group.

Today I talk to Parviz Parvizi. Parviz is co-founder of Clammr, a mobile app and platform making audio more social and viral. Users are calling Clammr, which features snack-sized audio clips of 18 seconds or less, the “Instagram of Audio.” Previously, Parviz worked at McKinsey & Company, Goldman Sachs, the FCC, and O’Melveny & Myers. He has advised top 5 global media companies and mobile carriers on strategy and growth. He was a founder of McKinsey’siConsumer research initiative on digital consumer behavior, authoring 3 of the Firm’s 10 most-downloaded media sector knowledge documents. Parviz holds a JD from Yale Law School and AB from Cornell.

In this interview we talk about the Clammr app.

Clammr brings social engagement and discovery to audio.  

Users are calling our app Audio Instagram and Audio Twitter.  Listeners get personalized streams of Entertainment & News in 18-second bites that they can launch automatically into full-length music, podcasts, and news.

Audio content creators love Clammr as a way to make their content more discoverable and viral.  Blogs and video producers love us for reaching audiences when they can't look at screens.

Advice and Links

Download Clammr for iPhone/iPad in the App Store or by visiting http://clammr.com

Use the web-based publisher to upload files and for a basic listening experience if you are on Android: http://publisher.clammr.com

Workshop and update videos at https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCC5x7Z_UUMu-Ev_k9ftnP1g

Write 2B Read Closed Facebook Group

Don't miss the opportunity to join me and other Write 2B Read podcast listeners at our Facebook group.

These days I’ve come across many articles and questions concerning Amazon’t new policy that will be implemented starting July 1st. At first it seemed confusing even to me, so I went through some stuff and decided to clarify things for you today.

For those of you who have not heard about this yet - the news says that Amazon twill pay Kindle authors only for pages read…

Before digging into this let me make one thing clear from the very start. This will only affect self-published authors whose books are available on Amazon’s lending services I mean those who self-publish their books exclusively through Amazon’s “KDP Select” program. It means that the news applies only at cases when Amazon prime members get your book for free from the Amazon Landing Library and if you are not enrolled at KDP Select program nothing changes for you.

But what if you are enrolled at the program. Before the change each month Amazon fixed a price per each landed/downloaded book and paid everyone that amount. So basically each landed book was viewed as a sale and the price was set by Amazon.

What will happen from now on? Well now what will matter is how many pages have the people who have landed your book have actually read. If someone downloaded your book and never opened it - you won’t get paid at all. So you will be paid for each page read.

“We’re making this switch in response to great feedback we received from authors who asked us to better align payout with the length of books and how much customers read,” the company said. Basically“ Under the new payment method, you’ll be paid for each page individual customers read of your book, the first time they read it.”

Some might think about fooling the new system by making the fonts bigger, double spacing the thing, etc, right? Well Amazon thought of it too and developed a “Kindle Edition Normalised Page Count” (KENPC) which standardises font, line height and line spacing. So that part has been taken care of.

Since some have asked what I think about this here we go….

First of all it is good that the writers have the choice - it is only for the KDP Select authors, so if you don’t like the new system you can still sell your books on Amazon and be out of the KDP Select.

Second I am thinking about my personal reading experience. I am not from those people who feel obliged to finish the book when they start reading it. In average I finish only 1-2 books out of the 10 that I pick up. I give a book chance of 20-30 pages - it either hooks me or it doesn’t and when it does’t I don’t feel like investing my time and attention into it. If the writer is not able to keep my attention and want me read more then he’s probably not a very good writer, right?

So in that respect I think that it is fair. There are so many VERY short non-fiction books, which have only one main message and lots of air inside. There are non-fiction books, which were written in 2 hours. Why should their authors be paid the same as a thriller writer of 140k word book, who spent months writing the book? Maybe if that new system applied to all book sales and not only the landing library we would have less of those small non fiction crappy books which were outsources just to make passive income for the publisher? Maybe in that case only really good writers would make money and not those who don’t even write the books but outsource them and use keywords and stuff to get the downloads? Maybe, I don’t know… but I see the logic of encouraging authors who's books readers want to read.

The Goldfinch, by the Pulitzer Prize-winning Donna Tartt, was one of 2014’s biggest sellers. But I read today that data released by Kobo showed that only 44 per cent of readers who downloaded it read to the end. Maybe people downloaded it because it was an award winning book, because it was a bestseller and many spoke about it. But apparently over 50% of them did not like it enough to read till the end.

On the other hand, as one of the authors stated - if we apply the same logic then it means we should pay for the burger according to how many bites we had… huh?

So the new thing I spoke about today is effective July 1st.

What I’d like to mention though is that it will be happening all the time. Amazon has been changing it’s algorithms many time before and it will be continuing doing so along with its policies. And it is good to know about the new things coming up and be prepared but what is ore important I think is to make you sure that you write the best book you can. Because if your writing is good, if it resonates with the reader, if it makes the reader feel and think, you will most probably succeed no matter what!

Write 2B Read Closed Facebook Group

Don't miss the opportunity to join me and other Write 2B Read podcast listeners at our Facebook group.

Today my guest is Beren Hollins. Beren Hollins is a Doctor from Britain who now works in Canada. He is planning to publish his first novel later this year and with that in mind decided to commit to the idea of building an audience in advance. So he started The First Three Chapters Podcast.

His podcast features new  books and help new authors get visibility and gain audience. Beren reads the first 3 chapters of the book in audiobook format and lets his listeners know where they can buy the book in case they like it and want to read the rest.

In this interview we talk about Beren's journey of becoming author, the plans he has about the launch of his first book this year, podcasting as a way for authors to gain new audience  and how you can benefit from The First Three Chapters podcast.

The First Three Chapter Podcast on iTunes

Beren's website

Podcast Incubator

Write 2B Read Closed Facebook Group

Don't miss the opportunity to join me and other Write 2B Read podcast listeners at our Facebook group.

Today my guest is Christal Earle. She is entrepreneur, speaker, passionate author and transformational coach.We all tell stories to ourselves and the world about who we are and what we are here to create. Christal works with  people who want to understand how to take their unique story, voice, passion and purpose into the world in a way that resonates and connects with who they are and the audience they want to reach.

In this interview we talk about how the stories we tell ourselves may keep us away from success and how to change them into new stories. We also

We look for what we want but we find what we believe.

Your Brilliance Unlimited (Christal's website)

Transform Your Life Story: A Ten Day Journey to Change the Stories You Tell Yourself (Free eBook)

You can e mail Christal at Christal (at) yourbrillianceunlimited.com

Resonate: The Stories We Tell Ourselves (Living Inside Out Book 1)

Write 2B Read Closed Facebook Group

<

div>

Don't miss the opportunity to join me and other Write 2B Read podcast listeners at our Facebook group.

Susan's first book- the classic bestseller -How To Work A Room-(now available as a silver anniversary revised edition in print, as an ebook and audiobook) has sold over one million copies in 13 countries. Named by Forbes.com as one of the Networking Experts to follow in 2015, Susan RoAne, an author and in-demand international keynote speaker, has shared her message of connection and communication with audiences worldwide, and in diverse publications including: the New York Times, Sydney Telegraph, Financial Times, Globe and Mail, USA Today,forbes.com, Men's Health,Buzzfeed , the San Francisco Chronicle, huffington post and The Wall Street Journal as well as on TV, Radio and podcasts worldwide. Her clients include Coca Cola, Kraft Foods, The US Air Force, UnitedHealth Group, Yale University, Apple Computer, Procter and Gamble, authors@google, Intel, Stanford University, LinkedIN, The National Football League, — and, her personal favorite . . . Hershey Chocolate!

Writing is isolating but the part of being an author is you have to be out there so people know who you are and that you create visibility. [spp-tweet "You are your own best PR person."]

When we’re face to face something happens that cannot be replaced by anything online.

Don't give your title during introduction - give the benefit of what you do and what your book will do.

Small talk is how we build those little details connections that link us to people and have them engage with us.

Little small talk starts and leads to a big talk.

Always know the etiquette and the culture of the room.

Writing a book is hard but everything after is harder.

Bring who you are to what you do.

Susan's website Dan Poynter's website Author U Publishers Lunch Publishers Weekly Writer's Digest

Write 2B Read Closed Facebook Group

Guess what? Write 2B Read podcast is almost 1 years old and its birthday is on July 1st. I thought about how to celebrate that milestone and yes it deserves a celebration because I have super unstable personality and for me a year is quite long… So I thought what to do and realized that this podcast would not stay alive until now if not you - my listeners. And it became completely clear to me that whatever I decide to do should be done with you. That is why I came up with the idea of having a live Q&A hangout with anyone who would like to join me to celebrate together our podcast’s birthday.

I thought that it would be nice to finally get together and have fun. Besides I have never done videos before and most of you have only heard my voice, so this will be the first time I’ll quit my comfort zone and get on live video for you. You will be able to ask me anything you’d like to know and I will do my best to answer… but guess what? I don’t know everything so if there will be questions, which I don’t know how to answer I will either cover those in the upcoming podcasts or get a guest who knows about the topic ok? And maybe… I will also get a surprise guest for you. In any case I think it will be fun and I’d love to have you there.

If for some reason you will not be able to make it live - don't worry. Make sure you register and I will send you the recording. 

Today I will have a solo piece and I’ll share with you my thoughts about inspiration and experiences.

We all had periods when we were not inspired enough. When we opened our computer screen and stared at it with no clue what to write about, or how to start what we thought about writing … as a result we got irritated, it made things worse and it is very probable that we gave up, shut the screen and left the desk… It has happened to me many times. And it does not feel good at all.

So where one should look for inspiration? Is it something that comes to you whenever it wants? Is that unexplainable muse controlling when and how you write? I don’t want to believe in that because as soon as I do I will feel as if nothing is under my control and I am not a writer but rather inspiration’s tool which it uses to express its thought…

Thinking back I realize that one can draw inspiration almost from everything. Life itself is a great source of inspiration. And I know what you might think - compared to all those books with amazing life stories yours might not be so interesting or so inspiring… and that might be true… but there are still ways even in that case. My life has never been dull to be honest and I’ve always been through different stuff which could eventually make a good story but I have not yet gained the courage to write about my life yet… at least not the way it should be written. But I have written about other people’s lives instead. My both novels Highball and Dreamdown were written based o true life stories, which later were modified into fiction. So yes, if at this point for some reason you don’t think that your life could be source of inspiration for your stories turn to other people’s lives. You don’t know people, who's lives inspire you? Cool - pay attention to the content shared on social media, see what stories are in there and get interesting life stories from there. Or simply get out of the house, go to a coffee shop and while you breath in the aroma  and enjoy every sip - watch people. Watch them and come up with their life stories - who are they? Why are they here now? Where they will go after they finish their coffee? Who do they love? Why do they look sad or tired? What dreams do they have?

There is Benjamin Franklin  quote which says "Either write something worth reading or do something worth writing."

I’d like to talk about the second half here - about doing something worth writing. I know that what I’ll say now may not be something you’d like to hear because we live in materialistic world and many prefer things… BUT my advice to you will be

Buy experiences not things.Why?

Well I don’t know about you but although I love my Prada sunglasses they don’t inspire me to write. I simply enjoy wearing them. But on the other hand when I am making a short trip, or meet new people, or read a thought or feelings provoking book I do get inspired to write.

So if you think your life is not inspiring - make it become inspiring. Fill it with experiences - go ahead and create the life which will inspire you to write. Become one of those people who's life stories are worth sharing with the word.

Well that was the dose of inspiration from me and before we part once more I’d like to remind you that you can join the Write to be Read podcast birthday party by registering at here.  I will be more than happy to meet you there!

Take care, have a great week end and keep writing!

Write 2B Read Closed Facebook Group

Don't miss the opportunity to join me and other Write 2B Read podcast listeners at our Facebook group.