Author Platform Archives

SPQ 037: How to Build Assets with Your Self-Publishing Business

October 17, 2017January 30, 2015 by Steve Scott

Introducing Self-Publishing Assets

In episode 36, Steve talked about some of his favorite books. One of those books is “Rich Dad Poor Dad” by Robert Kiyosaki. Although Steve disagrees with a few aspects of Kiyosaki’s brand, he does agree with the idea of building assets.

Steve defines an asset as any item that generates cash flow. Your goal should be to build as many assets as possible. At the time of this recording, Steve technically has about 90 published assets, from Kindle books to audiobooks. He would like to add about 50 more assets to his portfolio in 2015.

Biggest Takeaway

[Tweet “Your goal should be to build as many assets as possible. “]

Joanna Penn covered this topic in a blog post titled “It’s Not Just One Book: Your Rights and How to Exploit Them.” She talks about how you can exponentially grow you portfolio with just one book. You can put the book in Kindle format, print format, or audio format; leverage foreign rights to the content; use the books to create information products; turn small pieces of content into apps; or license your content to other people.

SPQ 035: Amazon Best Sellers Rank: Does the “#30,000 Rule” Apply to Categories?

October 17, 2017January 28, 2015 by Steve Scott

The Question…

Nigel asks, “When determining if a niche is profitable, does the 20,000/30,000 rule apply to the “Amazon Best Selling” rank in its entirety, or does it apply to any of the subcategories?”

Biggest Takeway…

[Tweet “Check a book’s Amazon ranking to help find out if there’s a demand for a topic.”]

Steve’s Answer…

In his question, Nigel referred to the “30,000 Rule.” Any book that has an Amazon ranking of 30,000 or below has at least five sales per day, which equates to 150 sales per month (or $300). In Steve’s early books, he recommended looking for a ranking of 20,000 or below, but Amazon is more competitive, so now he recommends a ranking of 30,000 as a benchmark.

SPQ 033: How to Write an Author Bio That Sells Books

October 17, 2017January 26, 2015 by Steve Scott

Author Bios as Landing Pages

In episode 17, Steve explained how to use an easy-to-remember URL to direct people to your Amazon author page. His URL, HabitBooks.net, redirects to his author profile and makes it easier for people to find his books.

Your author bio is your personal landing page, or a page designed to sell something, so it should always be helping you sell more books. It’s easy to set up your author bio on Amazon; simply go to Amazon Author Central and follow the steps. You should also set up author pages at Kobo, iBooks, and other platforms.

No matter where you have a bio, you must write something that engages readers and (hopefully) gets them to buy more books. Many readers check the “About” section of the author bio first, so you need to think carefully about what you write.

SPQ 029: My Presentation – The 80/20 of Building a Nonfiction Author Platform

October 17, 2017January 22, 2015 by Steve Scott

Steve’s Presentation

In one week, Steve is participating in the Author Marketing Live event. The virtual event, which runs from January 26 to January 30, has 20 speakers giving one-hour presentations. Learn more or register for Author Marketing Live at www.amlticket.com.

Steve will cover the following topics during his presentation:

How to identify what works for your business
Email marketing
Which platforms to focus on
How to maximize your book launch
Simple marketing tricks that have a long-term impact on sales
How to scale your business into a full-time income

SPQ 026: Should I “Americanize” My Author Name?

October 17, 2017January 19, 2015 by Steve Scott

The Question…

“I have a very ethnic name. Should I consider changing it to something more Americanized to help influence sales on Amazon? If I’m trying to brand myself as a writer, author, and entrepreneur, should I just leave my name the way it is and hope people focus more on the quality of my content than the ethnicity of my name?”

Biggest Takeaway…

[Tweet “Embrace your differences and be proud of your name.”]

Steve’s Answer…

Steve says Hung should not Americanize his name. In episode 9, Steve talked about some of the challenges he’s experienced with using a pen name.

SPQ 025: How to Set Up a Podcast for a Self-Published E-zine or Magazine

October 17, 2017January 18, 2015 by Steve Scott

The Question…

How would I set up a podcast for an e-zine or newsletter that I am planning to self-publish?

Biggest Takeaway…

[Tweet “Figure out where your market is and determine if a podcast is the right way to go.”]

Steve’s Answer…

Steve doesn’t consider himself the go-to person for podcasting, so he’s going to share some resources he used to prepare for the Self-Publishing Questions podcast. They are not affiliate links; he simply wants to support the people who did a great job talking about their experiences with podcasting.

SPQ 021: 7 Ways to Stand Out in a Crowded Book Market

October 17, 2017January 14, 2015 by Steve Scott

The Question…

Christian of Unpopular Tales asks how it’s possible to stand out in a market that’s saturated and full of competition.

Biggest Takeaway…

[Tweet “Having an author platform is the best way to stand out in a crowded market.”]

Steve’s Answer…

Amazon and other eBook platforms have become very crowded with authors. You need to up your game to stand out from this crowd. There are seven ways to do this…