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Join the Published Creator Skool Community: https://www.skool.com/thepublishedcreator-2767/about

Do you have a wellness self-care plan?

Are you taking time away from biz to get out of the house, away from your computer, phone put away to sit, and just be?

Work in something that makes you feel good, like listening to music that makes you feel good go get some bodywork, massage, mani, pedicure, facial

Sit still in silence 

Chat with a friend about anything but business, why? 

Even if you’re the friend and yes, I’m talking about talking to yourself, because here’s the deal 

Who listens to you more than you?

It’s not that you talk to yourself, but rather are you listening to what you’re saying?

Because who you are and how you’re doing personally impacts your business decisions and sometimes you need to just to decompress and chat with a good friend about anything other than business and work, even if you love what do. 

So talk about your dreams, talk about how you’re feeling, talk about a nonfiction book you’re reading, the movie or Netflix series 🍿 you just finished watching. 

Sometimes those personal conversations or journal entries can bring up things that perhaps your friend isn’t equipped to help you process and that’s why it’s worth considering hiring a therapist, when I was going through my grieving process after losing my father I reached out to Better Help an online service that matches you a qualified therapist 

Consider investing in a journal that inspires you and feels good to hold in hand. 

Journaling by hand, not on a device can be very therapeutic and reflective I got the inspiration for my coloring book creator business journaling 

Remember feelings impact decisions 

If there’s something you want to do but you can’t seem to get yourself to do it 

Ask yourself, “Whenever I think about doing that thing what’s coming up for me? When I think about how does it make me feel?”

Again, feelings impact decisions 

We have to get comfortable with releasing specific outcomes

Resources Mentioned In This Episode:

BetterHelp.com is an online therapist matching service, I’ve personally used them and found it very valuable, but please note: I’m not a licensed therapist, and take no financial, legal, or medical responsibility for any interaction so please exercise your judgment when working with a service or hiring professional help.

The best advice comedian and SNL alumni Leslie Jones got that shifted her mindset about money 

Rick Mulready Creator of the Art Of Online Business Podcast I’m Taking A Sabbatical (What, When, Why)

Episode 022: Make Your 1st 1K or More With Coloring Books (without solely relying on Amazon), and in that episode, I made an offer to get a downloadable PDF of my  Your 1st 1K 30-Day Profit Planner

DM me on Instagram or via Facebook Messenger, and in the message, say "1st 1K"

In that planner, I walk you through how to set a monthly intention for your business and map the steps to its achievement, this is a monthly practice I’m implementing with my Coloring Bookpreneur Society.

Got questions, ideas, thoughts on the episode? Send us a Text

Join the Published Creator Skool Community: https://www.skool.com/thepublishedcreator-2767/about

Can you increase sales of your coloring book through the power of your words?

Join me for this lively and highly informative conversation with Conversion Copywriter Holly Williams who discusses the power of words, more specifically how to use storytelling in your coloring book business to sell more coloring books and any other products you sell.

Items discussed on the podcast:

>>> How to draw inspiration from your daily life experience to craft engaging email copy that converts readers into buyers

>>> The customer journey of sales conversion 

>>> How to write product descriptions that capture customers 

>>> How to take headlines from popular magazine articles and repurpose them for your own copy

>>> How to use ChatGPT to write copy for your audience 

>>> The role customer research plays in product creation and her experiments with her own Etsy shop and she's using image-generating AI tools like MidJourney in her coloring page designs.

>>> The simplest way to start getting excited about email marketing (even if you've never written a customer email before)

Even if you think "I can't write anything more than a to-do list" this episode is filled with so many nuggets and easy-to-implement tips and tricks to inspire you won't be able to resist sending out that next email, and the one after that and the one after that!

Resources Mentioned In This Episode:

Discover How To Write Emails That Your Customers Can’t Wait To Read with Holly’s StoryFlow Guide (**an absolute must-read**)

Otter.ai - voice-to-transcription tool (paid tool)

A free option is Voice Type in Google Docs to locate the feature open a new document in Google Drive, next, go to tools, and in the dropdown menu scroll down until you see  Voice Typing  -or- you can use the shortcut command + shift + S  and with the microphone enabled on your computer start speaking your message and let Google transcribe your words.

If you're worried you have nothing to say or talk about, think again, the famous marketer and thought leader is quoted as saying the following:

"No one ever gets talker's block. No one wakes up in the morning, discovers he has nothing to say, and sits quietly, for days or weeks, until the muse hits, until the moment is right until all the craziness in his life has died down"

If you can speak, you can write

ChatGPT - the powerful AI-generated research tool that's taking the world by storm (stay tuned to the newsletter, a special AI training for coloring book creators is coming soon!)

To be notified send me a DM on Instagram, Facebook Messenger, and or join the Coloring Book Creator Live Facebook group.

MidJourney - AI-driven image creation tool

Holly's Etsy Shop

Got questions, ideas, thoughts on the episode? Send us a Text

Join the Published Creator Skool Community: https://www.skool.com/thepublishedcreator-2767/about

We all want to see our books in the hands of people who will enjoy and appreciate them, but’s face it, selling your books one-to-one can at times feel daunting.

But what if there was a highly effective way to go from one-to-one to one-to-many?

That’s what you’re going to learn in this new live presentation with my guest Sheryl Bass of the self-published children’s book Baby Dragon’s Big Sneeze that's sold to date over 400 copies in six months!!

Her goal in creating Be-Kind Publishing is to produce lighthearted rhyming stories with gentle themes of teamwork and friendship.

Video of the presentation is available on YouTube
PR Secrets: 7 Ways To Get Media Attention (so you can sell more coloring books)

1. Why you must get clear on your story and why it’s essential to secure the right media opportunities

2. What is a compelling hook and why you must have one

3. How to craft a press release that makes an editor/media contact stop and read

4. Where to find media contacts to send your release pitch to

5. Prepping your online presence for media attention and sales (getting your Amazon listing page media/sales ready for example, taking advantage of A+ content, researching alternative categories to add your book on Amazon) how to get more book reviews

6. Why it’s important to create connections offline as well as online we'll cover best practices for approaching bookstore owners/librarians, Facebook Group Admins, and Trade Associations

7. Little-known resources that can help you get more media attention and sell more of your self-published books

Resources Mentioned In Episode 023 of the Coloring Book Creator Podcast:

Publisher Rocket

Pubby.co

Story Originapp

Ingram Spark

BGS Authors

Net Galley

Sheryl Bass Website Be Kind Publishing

Baby Dragon's Big Sneeze: A Picture Book About Empathy and Trust

Self Publishing Made Simple

Claire McKinney Public Relations

021: Why Your Story Is An Essential Ingredient For Selling Anything Especially Coloring Books

Never Too Late To Make It Happen Adult Coloring Book (my coloring book on Amazon)

Want To Create & Publish A Book But Don't Know Where To Start? Check out my mini-course 

Validate Your 1st (or Next) Book Idea Before You Make it (available exclusively inside my Skool Community)

Got questions, ideas, thoughts on the episode? Send us a Text

Join the Published Creator Skool Community: https://www.skool.com/thepublishedcreator-2767/about

Today’s podcast episode was inspired by a video How To Make $3,500 a Month Selling Books Online WITHOUT Writing a Single Word! (Step-By-Step) on the popular YouTube Channel The Table With AO by Anthony O’Neal

The video offers a step-by-step tutorial on how to create a Low Content journal using the Book Bolt software

To be fully transparent I have not used the software, and I’m not an affiliate and that’s not the focus of this episode! 

With that said, Anthony’s tutorial was designed to guide a newbie through the basics of assembling a very basic lined journal notebook featuring the BookBolt software and uploading to file to the Amazon KDP platform.

All foundational steps I do with students of my Publish & Promote Your Coloring Book mentor program a very comprehensive course that goes deeper into additional steps that both newbies and seasoned publishers can do to maximize sales opportunities.

This brings me to the focus of today’s YouTube video and accompanying podcast, because after helping over dozen students to become published coloring book authors of multiple titles and not just of books but actually developing a business based on their skills and talents with the real potential to earn $1k and more monthly without being solely dependent on Amazon sales.

Resources Mentioned In This Episode:

Watch The YouTube iteration of this episode: Make Your First $1000 Dollars or More With Coloring Books (without relying solely on Amazon)

Learn more about my Online Mentorship Program For Author Creators 💻https://publishedandthriving.com/bestseller-impact-assessment

To get a copy of the Your 1st 1K 30-Day Profit Planner
DM me on Instagram or via Facebook Messenger and in the message say "1K" and I'll rush you a link to a special PDF download designed to help you figure out your best income-generating idea and get focused fast!

016: Why Coloring Books Are A Great Starter Product And Can Be A Profitable Side Hustle For Creatives

017: 5 Reasons Why Now Is The Perfect Time To Publish A Coloring Book

018: 7 Ways To Make Money With Coloring Books (plus 7 additional income generating opportunities)

015: Creating Books With Service & Purpose with Coloring Book Creator Nefertari Guice (to date has sold 90+ copies of her book in person)

002: Bringing Awareness To The Epidemic of Bullying with Coloring Book Author Contona B. Fair (sold 30 copies of her book in person in one afternoon)

Got questions, ideas, thoughts on the episode? Send us a Text

Join the Published Creator Skool Community: https://www.skool.com/thepublishedcreator-2767/about

Welcome to another special episode of the podcast, I'm calling Ask Rodney I'm exploring it sort of like a column where I'll take listener questions and dedicate a bonus episode or two a month focused on addressing any questions you might have.

If you'd like to submit a question about book marketing, sales, book design, or any related topics, DM me on Instagram. I can't promise to get to all of them, but I will do my best to address it in future episodes of Ask Rodney

This first question came from a member of my The Published Creator Mentor program who asked:

"I hired a designer on Fiverr to create my book cover for my book. This is our second project with this person; the first time went great, but I'm not getting similar results with my second book, what's the best way to handle this?"

A few of the members are artists who hand-draw their own work, while most of my members source their art from online resources like Creative Fabrica many more of them hire illustrators on Fiverr to create original work. This conversation is good to have, regardless if you're a provider or hiring freelance services

Resources Mentioned In This Episode:

Fiverr (Info on their request refund policy)

Fiverr (Contact Support)

The Published Creator Skool Community

Are you an author of a book on self-help, finance, nutrition, health, and self-esteem, or maybe you're a coach, speaker, or workshop/retreat leader, and you want to create a custom companion workbook, activity/coloring book, or journal to support your clients, students, and readers? 

I offer a Done With You service where I can help you create a custom book.
For more information CLICK HERE to learn how I can help you get your idea out of your head and into your ideal customers hands.

Help Me Spread The Word
Your support will help more creators like yourself find the show, if you could please rate and review the podcast.

Take a screenshot of your review and DM it to me on either Facebook or Instagram I'll send you a special surprise thank-you gift

Got questions, ideas, thoughts on the episode? Send us a Text

Join the Published Creator Skool Community: https://www.skool.com/thepublishedcreator-2767/about

Something that I constantly preach to the members of my The Published Creator Member program if you're not familiar, I run a course and membership program called the Published Creator, and in that program, I have a course where I walk first-time book creators through how to design, publish, and promote their first book in 30 days.

The program comes with six live coaching calls per month, which are unheard of in the online course community, especially at the price point I charge. 

The reason why I offer such a high-touch level of service is that it’s super important to me that my members feel and know they’re always supported

So how does this tie back to the topic of this episode and why the story is an essential ingredient for selling more copies of your books and related products?

It’s simple

Connection

In the world of artificial intelligence and automated that, we’re continually losing the one thing that we really crave now more than ever

Human interaction 

No one wants to do everything alone, and that’s why I created my first group program, My Coloring Club (currently on pause) if you’re not familiar, MCC was a weekly group virtual gathering where coloring book enthusiasts got together to connect, share life experiences, and color together 

I ran that membership for about a year, and it was very well received in huge part due to the high-touch level of experience I created from the start

Ultimately, I opted to shutter the membership because I felt in it’s at the time current iteration was no longer aligned with where I wanted to direct my energy, opting to focus exclusively on supporting newbie colorists produce and promote their books.

But even before I created My Coloring Club the #1 thing I believe helped create was my audience, soon to becoming my founding members was their connection to me and they connected to me through my story.

That's what you're going to master in a new free class/interview I'm hosting
PR Secrets: 7 Ways To Get Media Attention (So You Can Sell More Coloring Books) with Sheryl Bass of the self-published children’s book Baby Dragon’s Big Sneeze, that's sold to date over 400 copies in six months!!

Sheryl holds a master’s degree in Social Work and has studied child development. She uses these insights to inform her picture book writing. Sheryl also holds a master’s degree in Journalism and is currently working in public relations.

So if you’re serious about selling more books, you need to understand how to attract the attention of the media, I’m talking…

• Podcasts
• Print and digital publications 
• Blogs
• Television and radio
• Speaking opportunities
• Influencer/Partner opportunities and so much more 

Resources Mentioned In This Episode:

PR Secrets: 7 Ways To Get Media Attention (So You Can Sell More Coloring Books)

Never Too Late To Make It Happen (my coloring book that inspired all of this) available on Amazon 

The Published Creator Mentor Program 

Got questions, ideas, thoughts on the episode? Send us a Text

Join the Published Creator Skool Community: https://www.skool.com/thepublishedcreator-2767/about

Welcome to a special episode of the podcast, I'm calling Ask Rodney I'm exploring it sort of like a column where I'll take listener questions and dedicate a bonus episode or two a month focused on addressing any questions you might have.

If you'd like to submit a question about book marketing, sales, book design, or any related topics  DM me on Instagram, I can't promise to get to all of them but I will do my best to address it in future Ask Rodney episodes

This first question came from an Instagram follower who wrote:

Hello. I have sketches I would like to digitize so I can turn them into a book but I have no idea where to start or what type of drawing tool I would need to do that

A few of the members of my Coloring Bookpreneur Society mentor program are artists that hand draw their own work while most of my members source their art from online resources like Creative Fabrica many more of them hire illustrators on Fiverr to create original work.

What do you do if you’ve hand drawn your art on paper, but you need to digitize it so you can lay it out in book format for printing?

You have two possible three options:

Option 1:

You’ll have to scan your artwork that’s the most common way to digitize physical art but with it comes additional adjustments that you’ll need to make the most obvious will be cleaning up the background and making the background pure white. 
 
This can be done typically in Photoshop or perhaps Adobe Illustrator. 

What if you don’t have or are not familiar with either of this software? 

You could have your drawings scanned and then hire someone on Fiverr to clean them up.  Enter the term “Photoshop editing” in the search will yield a variety of providers that could help you.

Option 2: 

If you don’t own a scanner or have access to one, you could take your art to copy shop like Kinko’s and have your art scanned, or you can try photographing it with your phone and send it to a provider on Fiverr to clean it up. 

If you choose this option you’ll need good lighting and I recommend photographing as close as possible without losing the full piece end to end so your editor has plenty to work with.

Option 3:

I address in detail on the podcast but it's only applicable if you're using Apple Products

Resources Mentioned:

Procreate (Apple only product)

Creative Fabrica Spark (at the time I'm publishing payment plans start at $9 a month)

MidJourney (at the time I'm writing this payment plans start at $10 to $30 a month)

Canva (not crazy about the Ai tools, but definitely a contender for laying out and formatting your coloring book)

Fiverr (enter the search bar Photoshop editing)

Adobe Photoshop & Illustrator (subscription plans start at $10 a month)

iPad and Apple Pencil 

DM me on Instagram if you like to book a complimentary 15-minute no pressure conversation about The Published Creator Mentor program

Got questions, ideas, thoughts on the episode? Send us a Text

Join the Published Creator Skool Community: https://www.skool.com/thepublishedcreator-2767/about

If you’re doing this, you’re totally missing the point of social media 

I feel that 90% of creative entrepreneurs who use social media to “promote” their biz, myself included, often miss the biggest opportunity to attract customers and get sales, it’s one word, well… actually it’s two… Being Social

Social media is an awesome tool when used correctly, and that's the focus of this episode of the podcast

Tips To Move Forward
The best way to engage is to answer questions that you truly want the answer to. 
 
For example, try these conversation starters:

• Welcome, how are you? 
• What brings you to the page today?
• How did you find or come across my profile, page, or group?
• What resonated with you about my post today?
• What did you think about today's post? 

Resources Mentioned In This Episode:

The Published Creator Skool Community

The Published Creator Mentor Program

Help Me Spread The Word
Your support will help more creators like yourself find the show, if you could please rate and review the podcast.

And if you take a screenshot of your review and DM it to me on either on Facebook or Instagram I'll send you a special surprise thank you gift!

Got questions, ideas, thoughts on the episode? Send us a Text

Join the Published Creator Skool Community: https://www.skool.com/thepublishedcreator-2767/about

In this episode, I share not seven, but actually, fourteen ways to generate more income based on your coloring book. 

If you’ve not yet published this episode will definitely inspire you to get started. 

Want to uncover the Coloring Book Idea that's perfect for you?

Check out the Validate Your Book Idea Before You Make It Prep Kit designed to help you lay the foundation for creating a standout, in-demand coloring book that you’ll enjoy promoting and selling!!
 
The prep kit is a monthly membership where I walk you through everything you need to find your perfect book idea so you'll be better prepared to publish, promote and sell your 1st or next coloring book in as little as 30 days! 

1. Sell physical copies
2. Offer digital downloads
3. Sell licensing rights
4. Create a coloring book series
5. Offer workshops and classes
6. Sell related products
7. Advertise through social media

7 Additional Income Generating Opportunites:

1. Host coloring events
2. Offer custom coloring book services
3. Sell printable coloring pages
4. Create an online course
5. Collaborate with other artists
6. Affiliate marketing
7. Offer print-on-demand services

 
Resources Mentioned In This Episode:

002: Bringing Awareness To The Epidemic of Bullying with Coloring Book Author Contona B. Fair (Sold 30 copies of her book in one afternoon)

015: Creating Books With Service & Purpose with Coloring Book Creator Nefertari Guice (has sold 50+ copies of her book including getting it placed in her local bookstore)

Got questions, ideas, thoughts on the episode? Send us a Text

Join the Published Creator Skool Community: https://www.skool.com/thepublishedcreator-2767/about

The most frequently asked question I get from first-time creators 

“What if I publish my coloring book and no one buys it?”

It’s a fair question, so I want to give five reasons why NOW is the perfect time to publish your coloring book:

1. Increased stress levels

2. Growing demand

3. Diverse audience

4. Easy accessibility

5. Low cost of production

Bonus Reason: Increased income producing opportunities to repurpose your designs into a variety of print on demand products, like sneakers, socks, wall art, mugs and so much more

So if this interests you and if you’ve been dreaming about creating and publishing a coloring book and don’t know where to start, check out my Validate Your Book Idea Before You Make It on on-demand workshop where I'll walk you through everything you need to find and verify your 1st (or next) book idea for free.

Resources Mentioned In This Episode:

Creative Fabrica (great starter resource for POD print on demand coloring pages)

The Published Creator Mentor Program - If you're ready to go from idea to completed published coloring book with my direct support this is the program for you 

012: She Turned Her Passion for Tea Into A Beautiful Book with Coloring Book Creator Margaretha Madison