Free 50 Author Marketing Superpowers Audiobook

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Book marketing doesn't have to be scary. In fact, it should be something that allows you to share your author superpower with the world. I created the "50 Author Marketing Superpowers" to give you just that.
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Originally, it was designed as a deck of cards, an actual physical deck of cards that has beautiful illustrations and that you can flip through and learn all the core concepts you need to succeed in marketing your books as an author, as well as the ability to mix and match different superpowers so any time you're wondering what to do for your next marketing campaign, you can come up with unlimited combinations of superpowers to release in the world.
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This is a really fun project.
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So often we think we have to learn hundreds of hours about how to actually market our books, and instead, I wanted to give you these cards where in just a few hours, likely under two hours, you can learn everything you need to know to get started.
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For some folks, you might be getting started and you've never marketed a book f- before.
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For some other folks, you might already be making six figures a year, but I still wanna help you get started and get to the next level, and that's what this is about.
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Authors at all stages will benefit from these superpowers, and some of the ones inside are so powerful they might just be dangerous in the wrong hands.
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So my fellow storytelling superheroes, please use these powers wisely. Now, this is the audiobook. It's totally free.
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Whether you're listening to it on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, YouTube, just know I'm very grateful for you being here with me. Each edition of the book has its specialties. The e-book is very simple and streamlined.
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The digital deck is beautiful and you can have right in your computer. The physical deck is the most useful, and you can find the link to actually purchase your own if you want one in the description below.
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And the physical deck also comes with a bunch of other digital bonuses, worksheets, and templates. It's awesome. But this audiobook is really special.
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This audiobook has special case studies and examples directly from me that aren't anywhere else.
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The fact that you're listening to this audiobook is really awesome, and honestly, how I would do it is if you get the cards, even if you have the e-book, which is totally free, and you have the digital cards, I would look through the digital cards and be like, "Okay, I get these."
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You're kind of flipping through them and understanding them, spending a minute or two on each one and going, "Okay, I think I get this concept."
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But then when you're going out for a run or a walk, doing the dishes, you can listen to this audiobook and really start to distill these concepts. Because my goal is to help make marketing fun again.
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I want you to be able to use your superpowers, use your strengths to reach readers in brand new ways that give amazing experiences for readers and ultimately help you make more money.
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So that's what this book is all about. Now, a little bit about me before we dive into the superpowers. I'm the force behind Author Sidekick, and Author Sidekick's a company on a mission to bring power to storytellers.
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I've been a sci-fi author since 15, and I published 12 science fiction novels in high school.
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When I went to Harvard, I co-founded a publishing platform for fiction authors and, through my education and consulting, helped fiction authors make over a million dollars a year in membership income.
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After I graduated, I went to go work for MrBeast, the biggest creator on the planet.
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And throughout all these experiences, I've learned so much about how you can market your books and about the skills that the top creators in the world are using to reach more fans and grow their business.
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So there's some things contained inside of here that I think are truly groundbreaking, and I'm so excited to be able to share them all with you.
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Now, one final thing before we get to the superpowers is I really wanna share with you the framework of how to approach all of this, and that's with the book marketing system.
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I recommend you start here with a simple set of questions to help you determine what to focus on next to market your books and get more sales.
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Author Marketing Superpowers is about giving you the knowledge and tactics to market your books better. Unleashing all 50 superpowers at once would cause a cosmic calamity.
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This system helps you focus your efforts for the maximum impact. Now, the five essential questions. First, we start with: who is your story for? This is where the elemental powers help us find our readers.
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Next is question number two: how will you share your story with those readers? We have another set of superpowers here called the teleportation powers, which help us to share our story with the world.
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Then we have question number three: are those readers interested in your story? And this is where we have our magnetic powers, which help us to engage readers.
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Then question number four: how will you find a lot more readers like them? And that's where we have our expansion powers, which help us to scale our readership.
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Then lastly, we have question number five: how will you turn your story into an empire? And this is where the command powers come in, which allow us to scale.
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Next up is how I'd actually approach using these cards with some special tips about how to use this audiobook. So first, what is your author superpower?
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This is the mindset I want you going into these cards with, looking for your superpower. You don't have to use all these cards, but can you find a few superpowers in here that you wanna use?
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Odds are you'll find a lot more than a few, but a few to start with would be great. So you can listen through this whole audiobook at once.
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You can jump around the different chapters in it if there are specific superpowers that you can't wait to hear. This doesn't have to be listened to in order. You just can listen to any part at any time.
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Some of the concept builds on each other, but it's, again, it's not necessary to read it in order. Just helpful to read it all at some point so you get the whole picture.
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Now, what I also would love for you to do is think about how you can mix and match these cards together.
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If you had the physical deck, you'd actually be able to shuffle the cards, which is what I recommend authors do with the physical deck. But digitally, you can still shuffle it, right?
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You can still write down different powers and see which ones do I wanna mix and match for my next marketing campaign.
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So that's how I'd approach using these superpowers.They're super fun and will hopefully help you discover through examples, through insights, and foundational concepts how you can better market your books.
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Let's get into superpower number one: reader lifetime value, RLV. Elemental power, find your readers. The gross profit you receive from the average reader during their lifetime as your customer.
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Reader lifetime value is the most important metric to determine the health of your publishing business.
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High RLV means that readers are continuing to purchase more of your stories, you have a robust backlist of content, and you can spend more money to market your books, thus growing your readership faster.
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Now let's look at the reader lifetime value equation. Essentially, RLV equals the gross revenue from an average reader over some time.
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We first want to s- calculate our RLV by finding your read-through rate, or how many people purchase one book and then buy the next book in a series.
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Step two, you want to multiply your income from each story by the read-through rate for that particular story.
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Example, fifty percent of book one readers buy book two, and seventy-five percent of book two readers buy book three. Step three, add average revenue per reader from merch, courses, and other products into your RLV.
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Once we do this, we have to also figure out how we can increase our reader lifetime value. There are three levers for this. First is to increase your read-through rate. ReederMeter can help you with this.
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Next is to increase your pricing, and third is to increase the number of products, series length, et cetera. Next up on our superpowers, we have story-market fit. It's an elemental power. Find your readers.
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The definition is when a story meets the expectations of a specific group of readers who have a history of buying books.
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Without story-market fit, you may be writing a great story, but you likely have trouble finding where to market it, and when you try marketing your story, you likely have trouble getting readers to pay attention.
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Story-market fit gives you a framework to reduce this uncertainty and sell more books.
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To have story-market fit, your story draft, concept, or published work must be marketed sustainably at a three X return on investment, abbreviated ROI.
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You can calculate this by multiplying the number of readers you get from a marketing activity by the reader lifetime value you garner from that marketing activity. Then divide that by the cost of marketing your book.
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Ideally, this number is above three. Getting an exact science of this is sometimes difficult. These numbers can feel intimidating.
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First of all, in the digital downloads that you get with this deck, I have a little template calculator that can help you plug and play all these numbers for yourself.
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But the most important thing to know, the most important thing I want you to understand is that story-market fit and understanding if you're actually able to market your books profitably is the most important thing before you go crazy and try and spend tons of money marketing your books because you might be putting your money into a money pit without knowing it.
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I've done that myself before. I had a series that I thought was great.
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I was getting people to go buy book one, and I spent thousands of dollars, like fifteen hundred to two thousand dollars ads marketing book one, and I hadn't written book two yet.
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I didn't know what the read-through rate would be, and I just was hoping it would be good. And I came out with book two, and the read-through rate was pretty poor, and it ended up being a pretty poor decision for me.
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I was okay. I ended up breaking even on the series with my ad cost, but when you count in the time and the stress, it wasn't really worth it. I was not getting a three X ROI. I'll, I'll tell you that.
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It was, like, barely a one X.
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So you really wanna make sure before you dump money and time and energy into marketing something that you actually have a story that can go the distance, and story-market fit helps you with that.
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Now, there's three components of story-market fit. Number one is your story's read-through rate, and a read-through rate above fifty percent is a good sign you have story-market fit. Number two is your story's packaging.
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This is your book cover and description. You may have an issue here if your packaging isn't converting readers at a high enough rate to have that three X ROI when you factor in your read-through rate.
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And the third component of story-market fit is your target market. You may be reaching the wrong readers for your story and need to adjust your targeting.
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The next superpower is story investor versus day trader, another elemental power which helps you find your readers.
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Our definition here is this paradigm describes whether you invest in a long-term readership that compounds over time or capitalize on a short-term trend.
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And here's the deal: Most people think you have to pick one, but the smartest authors are astute long-term investors while capitalizing on outlier trends in the short run.
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Thus, you must learn the skills of a publishing investor and a day trader to grow faster as an author. Mindset of an author investor. Author investors understand the power of compounding.
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They know that by publishing stories for a specific group of readers for a long period, your readership can grow over successive launches and lead to a sustainable business.
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Author investors rely on consistent publishing to a specific audience, readership growth at every new launch, and continued sales of previously published books, AKA the backlist, after each launch.
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Here's the mindset of an author day trader. Author day traders rely on exploiting market asymmetries to grow faster.
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Essentially, this means there's a trend or attention or demand for a specific trope, maybe a specific subgenre or setting, and they're able to capitalize on it because not enough books have been created there yet, and there's a voracious readership for that specific trend.
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Author day traders rely on identifying outlier books.
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These are titles selling a lot better than others in the genre.Incorporating tropes and plot dynamics from outlier stories into your own, and then publishing before the market is flooded to exploit this increased reader demand and low supply of books.
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Now, our next superpower is reader napping. It's another elemental power which helps us to find our readers. And the definition here is if you could steal readers from any author in the world, who would it be?
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The instinct is to say a massive author like Stephen King. Instead, it's best to practice reader napping with authors who overlap with your target readership as much as possible.
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For instance, if you are writing a hard science fiction book, do you really want the readers of a contemporary romance author? So here's how you become a reader napper in minutes.
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First, go to Amazon and browse the books selling inside the Kindle store. If you're targeting a different book marketplace or platform, you can search there instead.
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Number two is see what books are selling, particularly browse genres and subgenres similar to the ones you write.
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Note, Amazon nor anywhere else on the internet has a comprehensive list of every genre imaginable, so get as close as you can. Number three is create a spreadsheet and document top selling books similar to yours.
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In this spreadsheet, catalog the author's name, the book, and the current sales ranking of the story if it's available.
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Number four is if you have trouble filling up this spreadsheet or most of the books you are reader napping from have a low sales ranking below ten thousand in the Kindle store, you may want to adjust the genre you are writing.
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You want to ensure you write for a big enough readership to support your career. And let me note, I made a huge mistake on this.
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I wrote my first series, Y dystopian, and it stumbled into readership because Y dystopian happens to be a defined market of books.
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Now, I thought my next series, oh, I'll write like this dystopian game lit mashup that was like a remix of Ready Player One, but not really.
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Totally missed the mark of any market, and I just couldn't for the life of me sell that book.
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And if I had done my research to try and come up with better comp titles, which is essentially what reader napping helps you do, I would've saved myself a lot of pain.
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So I wanna save you that pain because I ended up writing six books in that series. It was fun to write. It wasn't fun for the bank account.
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Step number five here, and the last step of reader napping, is if you include more than a couple of dozen authors on this list and most are selling well above ten thousand in the rankings, you may wanna consider narrowing your targeting to be more specific.
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Again, our goal is here not to just look at the ultra bestsellers and figure out how to compete with the best link. It's to figure out how to find your specific readers that you can have a monopoly in.
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People over algorithms. This is one of my favorite superpowers, and it's another elemental power, and it's all about finding your readers.
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And this one's really focused on mindset here, which is readers first publishing is all about putting your readers first and then writing your story. Your readers are real people, not an algorithm to appease.
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When you write for people and keep their core desires at heart, you change reader behavior.
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And paradoxically, the algorithms of any platform you are publishing on will work in your favor since they are designed to respond to reader behavior.
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Now, I've had a few authors I've shared this deck with in beta, and they were like, "I don't know if I agree with this superpower." And I'll admit, sometimes this superpower is really hard to agree with and internalize.
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And sometimes the algorithm does do funky things that don't necessarily mimic reader behavior.
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But here's the thing, if you spend all your time obsessing over the algorithm, you're taking away from all the mental energy and effort you could be putting in to making your reader experience better.
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In the long run, that's how you're gonna win. So you should always be putting your readers first over the algorithm.
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I don't think that the algorithm is really worth worrying all that much about because again, if you do great by your readers, they buy your books, they tell people to buy your books, and word of mouth picks up.
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Algorithm does see that behavior and should go in your favor. Now, the core values of reader first publishing are this. Reader first publishing is not just about selling more books by focusing on what really matters.
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It's about amplifying the good storytellers do for hundreds of millions of readers. Value number one is one reader at a time. You don't have to go viral tomorrow. Every movement starts with one person.
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Value number two is connection over attention. Creating more books is great, but we don't have to drown our readers in content.
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Instead, put the extra effort into having your stories deeply connected with them, from your marketing to your packaging to the themes inside. Value number three is giving is true having.
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The free content you share with your readers has to be better than everyone else's paid content to build trust. Now, our next superpower is the trust moat. It's another elemental power which helps you find your readers.
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The trust moat is the combination of market signals like reviews and social media buzz combined with individual reader experiences with your story that alert new and existing readers that you have great books.
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If a specific group of readers trusts you to deliver a consistently great experience in your stories, then you will have a much easier time selling future stories and other products to them.
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This is your biggest competitive advantage over the long run. There are three steps to build your trust moat. Number one is identify who you want inside your reader kingdom and who they already trust.
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Sometimes we group readers by defined genre and subgenres. Other times, we might group them by interest. Example, cryptid lovers. Crucially, we always want to understand which creators this group of readers engages with.
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It can be books, podcasts, YouTubers, et cetera. Then we wanna create trust by having readers associate your stories with creators they already trust.
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Sometimes this involves getting influencers to review your book or doing swaps with authors.
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Other times, it's showcasing a reader review in your marketing that mentions how your story is similar to another well-known storyAnd the third step is to remain consistent, surprise, and delight.
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Follow through on your promises to your readers and stick to serving your community's core interests. Sprinkle in some extra surprises, for an example, bonus content, to further cement your readers' trust.
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I wanna throw in the idea here that everyone is giving the same surprises oftentimes. Everyone's running the same playbook.
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And if you're able to innovate and actually go the extra mile, the extra step to really serve your readers, it's going to go a long way. So get creative.
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How are you able to frame your reader magnet in a way that's more valuable to your readers?
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Is it taking something that could've been an audio story, but reframing it around something that can now help your readers with sleep? A science fiction story designed to help you fall asleep at night.
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Or is it something that is able to relate to a specific group of people at a deeper level? Oh, this is a fantasy novel, or this is a romance story for people who happen to love a specific sport.
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These are all things to think about in terms of how you can build trust. You can almost build trust deeper with people when you're able to speak to them and they haven't felt heard.
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So speaking to people who feel underrepresented in stories, who feel like they don't have the specific stories they're looking for, is a really quick way to build trust.
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Next up is Story Spy, another elemental power which helps you find your readers. It's a simple set of questions that allows you to see if a book is selling well or not and why.
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So often we jump into new genres and begin writing a book without a fundamental understanding of what is already making stories in that genre work.
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When you follow the Story Spy steps, you have a simple framework to ensure you always understand the genre landscape you are entering. So how to spy on stories legally, of course. Number one, get the numbers.
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First, go to the book's product page online, typically Amazon. Check out its sales ranking across e-book, paperback, and audiobook. How do its relative rankings compare across formats?
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Is the book in Kindle Unlimited, or is the author selling it on their own website or another channel? Number two, get the reader's response.
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Read reviews of the story on the product page, Goodreads, and any reader groups the author has. See what readers are resonating with. What do they like about the story? What do they love about the story?
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What are their frustrations with the story? And number three, get the experience. Join the author's mailing list and follow them on social media. See how they market their books and what readers respond to most.
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Go to the Facebook Ad Library and see if they are running any ads on Meta, and if so, what they are. And lastly, read their books with these elements in mind to see how it all works in practice.
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Now, you can do this for multiple stories and spot patterns across well-selling stories in your genre. Another hack I'll just say is love looking at what sponsored products on Amazon are popping up.
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You can see what books Amazon feels are relevant to the book that you're on and go down a fun rabbit hole of finding more stories to spy on. So that's another really useful way to use Story Spy.
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Now, our next superpower is the Reader Cities. It's another elemental power. The art for this one in particular is beautiful, so when you get your physical deck, enjoy this one.
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Reader cities are the places to find your target readership online and in person communicating with one another. You can get the best intel on who your readers are and what they care about by visiting them directly.
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Unfortunately, no cities in the real world are just for readers yet. However, events and communities exist online and in person bringing together your target readers. Scour these events for insights and participate.
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Now, becoming a member of a reader city. Number one, first create a list of all the reader cities that contain your readership. This will include Facebook groups, Discords, in-person events, and more.
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The key to the word city is that these groups should be engaged and sizable. If no one posts inside the group or the event or community is small, it won't be a great fit to add to your reader cities list.
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Step number two is now that you have your list of reader cities, maybe somewhere around five to 10, join these cities and take note of the books, themes, and conversations people are having.
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The goal here is less to psychoanalyze your readers and more to passively develop a native understanding of what your city cares about. Finally, number three, participate in your reader cities. Comment on posts.
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Interact with fellow readers. Share posts from other authors promoting their work. The goal is not to promote yourself here. It's to build the foundation for long-term relationships when you market your books later.
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Next up is whale readers versus casual readers. This is one of our last elemental powers which helps you to find your readers.
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Whale readers are the minority of readers who consume a majority of books, typically multiple per week. Casual readers are the majority of readers who consume a minority of books, usually around 10 books per year.
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Now, the whale reader business model, how to structure your business serving whale readers. One is write for a defined genre or subgenre that has strong existing book sales.
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Two is write lots of books, typically in a series focusing on writing in the same genre.
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And last is enroll your books in Kindle Unlimited and create book bundles or a similar model that makes it easy for readers to binge your stories. The casual reader business model is slightly different.
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How to structure your business serving casual readers. First is write a story that people want to share and/or gift others to grab the attention of casual readers.
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Then create social media content targeted at readers broadly interested in your book's topics.
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That way you can bring in people who aren't just BookTok people or Bookstagram or BookTubers, but actually bring in people who are more casually interested in booksBut love the topic that your book covers.
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Love the genre that your book covers. Next is create products and services beyond the book that allow you to make more money per reader. This could be clothing, education, and we dive into this more in later superpowers.
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Now, my big note here is that you can serve both whale readers and casual readers by implementing learnings from both methods.
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So you don't need to just say, "Hey, I'm only serving whale readers," or, "Hey, I'm only serving casual readers." You can do both. You may have different strategies for serving both, and that's great.
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And write to community, the last of our elemental powers, all helping you find your readers.
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Write to community is writing for a specific reader interest and letting that interest form the foundation of your marketing, branding, and business strategy.
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Often referred to as write to market, write to community is about discovering what readers care about and creating a story that serves them. The reader's interest does not have to be a specific genre.
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Instead, it can be a hobby, passion, trope, or character journey. Bonus points for combining reader interests in unique and novel ways.
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And hopefully this helps you to expand the definition of write to market and adds new dimensions into the process for you. Now, how to write to community.
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First, pick one or a collection of interests and passions you'd like to write a story catered to. I think Silicon Valley is a great example of a TV show that did this.
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It's a comedy drama that's specifically about a startup in Silicon Valley. So it combines the comedy drama with this untapped genre, at least at the time, which was writing about companies in Silicon Valley.
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So it's a great show, and that's one way to actually combine these. Now, step number two here is research the market.
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Find where folks with those passions are congregating and what stories and media they love, and thinking broadly about media. It could be games, movies, et cetera.
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And then finally, step number three is draft the story and recruit beta readers from the community you are writing for to get feedback. Now, you've written to community, but how do you market to community?
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First, brand your story specifically to your readers' interests. Be loud, and don't be afraid to signal to those who should not read your story. Example, a horror story for theme park lovers.
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There's actually this wonderful author, Diana Roy.
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She has a whole series for pickle lovers, a romance series for pickle lovers, which is also incredible, and she has merch and all these fun pickle related things that's just hilarious and incredible.
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Now, number two here is build relationships with key people of influence in your community. Could be podcasts, YouTubers, or fellow authors.
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And finally, step number three is get your book talked about in the community through paid ads, collaborations, content, or events.
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Now we're on to teleportation powers, which are all about helping you share your story with readers.
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Now, this first one is story suit, which are the elements that make your story feel familiar, yet stand out to prospective readers so they want to pick it up and read it.
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The key to success in book publishing is creating packaging, marketing materials, and a story that is familiar to a target group of readers, yet different enough in a way that intrigues them.
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In short, you want to stand out and be attractive to your readers. Now, let's talk about the pieces of your story suit. First is your packaging. This is your cover and story description.
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Following similar designs to covers that have succeeded in your genre as well as similar descriptions is great. Your best spot to stand out here is in your story's premise.
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How can you hook your readers into a familiar yet unique adventure?
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Next up is your medium, how your readers experience your story, through e-books, paperback, serials, a video on YouTube, in story letter format, et cetera.
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Following the mediums that have proven successful with your readers is a great start, but your medium can be a great place to go beyond the book to innovate and stand out. Next is your message.
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This is the unique combination of characters, themes, and plot points in your story. Including most of the core tropes and character arcs readers expect is a great idea.
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But where can you subvert expectations, surprise the reader, and give them a more delightful experience? Now, your marketing channel. This is the channel or channels you use to drive awareness among new readers.
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It can be paid ads, newsletter swaps, paid newsletter promotions, content on social media, and many more. Leveraging underpriced or underused channels to reach new readers can be a great way to have your story stand out.
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Now, our next teleportation power is author mask. And I love this one. An author mask is the who tells the stories you create in your marketing to readers. Now, you might be thinking, "I tell the stories to my readers.
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It's me." That's one option. But let's be honest. How many of us want to always be front and center in our marketing?
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What if putting on a different author mask can spark brand new ideas and experiences that we can create for our readers?
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The key here is that we can put on one author mask, take it off, and wear another in a different circumstance. Now, the five author masks. Our first one is the neon mask. This is you.
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You are the person telling the marketing story because all marketing should be a fun and entertaining story. You don't have to show your face, but you are the person doing the telling here. Then there's the phantom mask.
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This is a pen name that tells the marketing story. The difference between a phantom mask and a neon mask is you can develop elaborate backgrounds for a pen name that would be didactic if you kept your own character.
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Next up is the avatar mask. This is when you tell a marketing story from your character's perspective. Imagine a Facebook ad where the character's talking to you.
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Or better yet, a personality quiz you create for free using something like tally.so that allows you to assign readers to different characters to hear more from them on your newsletter, community, and social media.
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And then there's dragon mask. I love this oneYour readers and their experiences become the voice of your marketing story. This looks like encouraging and fostering spaces where readers can become a part of the creation.
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Think fan fiction, fan art, and group mailing lists where readers can add content. Then is the Oracle Mask. This is you, but comes the perspective of a guide along someone's journey for knowledge and transformation.
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This is when your marketing story will often involve advice and education in various formats for your readers. Our next teleportation power is Bookmarking Plan, all about sharing your story.
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And what's funny about this is, sure, by definition, this is the plan you have to share your book with readers and grow your publishing business.
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But the biggest mistake most authors make is having the wrong kind of plan.
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Instead of planning a mountain of marketing activities to promote your next book, you should focus on designing a series of experiments to teach you how to best reach new readers.
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So we're gonna simplify and help you take your next steps so that you can do the right things and not just a lot of things. Now, the best book marketing plan. Less is more.
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This isn't about taking over the world or having your book become a New York Times bestseller overnight. It's about taking one step closer to growing your readership every day.
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Step one is to identify one thing you can do to reach a new reader with your story today. It can be post to social media, newsletter swap, going to an event, et cetera.
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Step number two is to write down how long it took to take the one step forward in marketing your book. Then track how much sales, newsletter signups, or any other goal for your marketing campaign.
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If step two shows minimal results, go back to step one and try something new. Note, sometimes you'll have to post several times on social media to see traction, so don't be discouraged.
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These steps are all about helping you find momentum as fast as possible. Then step three is double down on what works best and sell more books.
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Sometimes the best plan is no plan, but instead a simple way to get you started guilt-free. And we'd love to see how you are marketing your books and help you inside the Facebook group Authoropolis.
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And this link, along with any other links I mention in this audiobook, will be included in the bonus PDF.
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There should be a PDF somewhere, or if not, it'll be in the episode description depending on where you are listening to this audiobook. Now, the next superpower is the Publishing Sales Model.
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This is another teleportation power which is all about helping you share your story. Authors typically sell their books to readers in three predominant ways, and each can be used to your advantage.
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How and where you sell your books to readers determines the best way to market them, the price point at which you sell them, and sometimes even the types of readers you reach with your stories.
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Picking the right sales model for you at the right time is essential for publishing success. Now, here are the three publishing sales models. First is Kindle Unlimited. It's the largest subscription service for e-books.
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Why? Enrolling your book in KU reduces friction for KU readers trying out new authors since they pay nothing out of pocket. The downside is that you cannot sell your e-book outside of KU, so it greatly limits
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your flexibility. A hint is that for many genres, Amazon is eighty plus percent of the e-book market, and KU helps you a platform. How about going wide?
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The what here is to go wide means you publish your e-book and audiobooks across retailers, not in KU. Why is you reach readers and retailers with less competition and depend less on one platform.
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A big hint here is you can go wide with a story and in KU with another. Now, for direct sales, what this is selling paid products such as books on your website or at an in-person event.
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You would do this because you get paid out within days, get to charge what you want, keep all your customer data, AKA you have their emails, and you don't have to pay any retailer fees.
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My big hint here is don't replicate the retail experience on your website. Focus on selling print books and higher priced products using software like Shopify.
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Now, when you're first getting started, you're gonna have to pick a sales model, right? 'Cause you can't be doing wide, KU, and direct sales with one book in a singular instance.
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You're gonna have to say, "Oh, I wanna set up my direct store first. I wanna go to KU first. I wanna go wide first." That decision's ultimately gonna be up to you.
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I think it's good practice generally for you as an author to understand one of the retailers, so to either go wide or in KU. So it totally depends on your approach here.
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But with one title, you can be wide with audio and then selling your print book direct, where you can sell that direct to readers on your website and keep a lot more of the margin.
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So there's just so many different ways to go about it, and what you really wanna think about is for what products and at what moments is each option best for you.
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You can enroll your book from KU every ninety days, so that's actually a big help. So you can adjust series, cycle them in and out of KU.
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Likewise, you can push things hard on your direct store and then push less hard over time.
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Generally, I'm a big believer that every author does need to get into selling direct because that's really your long-term business, your direct connection to your fans.
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But you should use and abuse these retailers for discovery. What's gonna be best for you is gonna depend on your genre.
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If you're writing children's books, it might not be as important to be in KU, whereas if you're writing post-apocalyptic science fiction, it might be very important.
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So it's gonna depend on your genre, which is where Readernapping and Story Spy are helpful 'cause you can see what other authors are doing and try and either use some of their strategies as inspiration or innovate and try and see gaps in the market that they're missing.
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This is another teleportation power all about helping you share your story. And these are marketing activities designed to help you test your book in the market and get your initial readers.
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When building out your audience, we often think about how to scale our readership.But before thousands of readers purchase our books, we need to cost effectively get our first 10 readers.
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One-time marketing events take the stress off needing a perfect plan and allow you to reach new readers cheaper and faster. So here are the types of one-time marketing events.
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You can do a virtual or in-person event, whether it's a local event in your area or an event just for readers of your genre online. These can be a great way to get in front of readers. There's collaborations.
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You can do newsletter swaps with fellow authors, having a BookToker, BookTuber, or another online creator review your book, or even being featured as a guest on a podcast that ideally readers listen to.
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Now, the next one is discount promotions, right? You can make your book free or low price for a limited time and use discount newsletters like Written Word Media and BookBub to promote it.
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Now, before you dump loads of money into marketing your book, you should utilize one-time marketing events to cost effectively reach new readers.
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Even as you invest in ads and content, one-time marketing events should still be utilized to connect with existing fans and give yourself a one-time boost in sales.
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Think holiday promotion, pre-order bonuses, book signings, et cetera. One-time marketing events, I hope, take the pressure off of you when it comes to marketing.
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Your goal when you start marketing is not to have the big grand plan that's going to make you a six-figure author.
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Your goal when you start marketing is to do one thing at a time, these one-time events that aren't necessarily scalable, but will teach you what messaging works for your readers.
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Is your story a good fit for your readers? And you need to take that pressure off the whole process and allow yourself to dive into these one-time marketing events. Next is author flywheels.
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I love this superpower, and it's another teleportation power about helping you share your story.
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And as you put more effort into a marketing activity, author flywheels help your growth continue to get bigger and bigger with time.
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So with marketing, there's a, a widespread myth that scaling means doing more work, spending more on ads, and putting more resources into something. But there's another way.
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By building growth flywheels such as content, marketing referral programs, even community, you will continue to grow faster over time, even as you put in the same effort. There's three types of growth flywheels.
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Number one is content marketing. As you create more content and publish it to social platforms and search engines, your old content continues to bring in new readers over time, just as your new content does.
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Number two is reader affiliate programs. So once you set up an affiliate or reader referral program, new readers recommend other readers to buy your books and follow you.
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Then those newly referred readers recommend new readers of their own. So many newsletter platforms already have this built in.
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It's a great feature, and I love being able to grow through encouraging word of mouth with referral programs. And our last type of growth flywheel is community, right?
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The more readers you have engaged in community around a specific topic, the more valuable your community is and the more it grows. Now how to create a growth flywheel.
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Every flywheel must contain the following: a resource you put into the flywheel, for example, a new post on your blog, a desired output, for example, new readers finding the post through Google, or maybe nowadays could be a chatbot like ChatGPT that's increasing, getting more and more search volume, and then lastly, you must have a resource that is amplified over time.
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So in this example, more posts could mean that you surface for more search results, and you then reach more readers and have more growth over time.
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And a hint for all this is your flywheel may have more than three steps as you break each part into sub-steps, so it's important to get really granular about what's in your flywheel.
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And I wanna take a second to pause and share, like, flywheels don't have to just be related to growth. They could be related to your productivity in writing, right?
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For instance, you might be able to set up a flywheel where you're able to build more and more background information about your world that makes drafting easier, so that the more information you add to the draft, the more information gets added to your world bible, and then the faster you're able to write the next draft, which adds even more information to the world bible, makes your process more efficient.
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There's a lot of different ways you can think about these flywheels. There's flywheels of learning. You can be meeting new authors and networking, learning more about how to grow.
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Then you can be growing your readership, which then allows you to collaborate with bigger authors, which then allows you to learn more from bigger authors, grow your readership more, and collaborate with even bigger authors.
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You can see that's another flywheel. Look, you don't have to necessarily have the one flywheel that's gonna change your life.
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The goal is just to be aware of what a flywheel is, so you can start to see these things and intentionally design your activities in a way that actually creates a flywheel for your growth.
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The most common ones I see tend to be content.
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Building content on, like, a social media platform can be a great flywheel because it can give you the ability to have more readership over time as your old content gets views along with your new content.
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So that would work like TikTok, YouTube, especially YouTube Shorts and YouTube long-form videos are great with this. I also see another very powerful flywheel being your actual backlist, right?
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Funneling readers into your backlist, and as you get more stories, having more surface area for readers to find you is another great thing.
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So there's honestly so many flywheels working in your favor, and when you're just getting started, you might think a, a big author, like, "How am I ever gonna get there?"
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But the answer is they probably have a lot of flywheels working in their favor, so it looks easy for them, but it's taken years to get there, and you can get there, too.
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It just takes a while for these flywheels to really get spinning. Okay. Now on to our next superpower, the testing trick, another teleportation power all about sharing your stories.
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And this one is you can test if your books sell before you write them and if your readers like your stories before you finish writing them.The testing trick is one of the biggest ways to save money and time en route to publishing success.
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For authors who have written for many years, they have learned a lot. But what if you could short-circuit publishing and learn just as much as they have in weeks rather than years? So here's what a good test looks like.
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It has to be fast, right? It should take hours rather than days to execute. It should be cheap. Ideally, you should spend little out-of-pocket money to execute a book test. Get scrappy.
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And then it should be effective, right? You test something that matters. Do readers want to buy and read your book? That's really it. So here are three kinds of book tests on how to execute them.
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First is the traffic test. Can you get readers to the sales page for your book? Here's an example of how to do this.
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You could spend $5 a day over one to two weeks on meta ads and see if you can get readers to click on your traffic ads with your copy and images.
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If you can't get readers to click, then you're not getting any traffic to your book, and that test is something you can keep refining on. I often recommend starting with the traffic test.
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How you drive traffic to your book is up to you. It can be through swaps. Again, it could be through events. It could be through ads. Just make sure that you're not spending any money or time that you don't have.
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Keep things sustainable. The next is the packaging test, which is, can you get readers to actually buy your book? So once you drive traffic to your page, see that they convert to your cover and packaging.
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And here's the deal. I want you to run the traffic test and then the packaging test without actually writing the book. That's the magic of the testing trick.
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So you can have readers pre-order your story through your website since you're testing it and haven't written it yet. So you might feel comfortable starting out with a wait list at first.
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Then I recommend you actually charging and having readers pay you money up front.
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It can be at a discount to the normal book price, but you just wanna see, are people willing to pay sight unseen of the actual story in terms of they see the cover, they see the description, they're ready to buy.
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You wanna know that you can do that before you really invest in the story. And if the test fails, you can refund your readers. That's okay. Next is the hook test. I love this one.
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You wanna write the first few chapters and release it. See if readers finish those chapters or not.
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A big hint here is you can use platforms like ReaderMeter to deliver stories and track retention, or you can see the read-through rate to purchase the next chapters in your story. So it depends on how you design this.
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I created ReaderMeter to specifically help authors with this problem.
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It's coming out at the end of twenty twenty-five, and the whole goal is to be a reader intelligence platform that gives you the insights you need to be able to say, "Oh, do I have a good story?
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And if not, where are people dropping off so I can make the story better?"
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Now, my big insight here for you that really changes things is I want you to focus on writing the first few chapters of your story, the parts that really matter, and seeing where readers are dropping off in it.
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So before you write the full book, start getting feedback in those first few chapters and start seeing if those are really right. And once you get those first few chapters to hit, then write the rest of the book.
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And if you can't get it to hit, rewrite the chapters. And this is just a way to de-risk the entire book launching process, and I love it.
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Y- you can literally see how well a story's going to sell before you finish writing it. It's really simple. Again, if you do a pre-order, you can then see if someone willing to go on and buy the next few chapters, right?
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Just make it easy on yourself. Ton of fun here. Testing is so underrated, so underused, and I think if you really dive deep into this, you can speed up your learning process by ten X. Next up is copy cooker.
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This is another teleportation power all about helping you share your story. And this is a simple system to help you write effective copy for your marketing.
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Great copy for your advertisement, social media, and newsletter can sell your stories like hotcakes. Most copy sounds boring, just like everything else out there.
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By being loud in our copywriting, we can attract the right readers to our stories and sell our books to more of them. Now here's the loud copywriting method. So great marketing is loud, L-O-U-D, okay?
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And your words are the best way to do that. Here are four simple steps that will empower you to write thrilling copy. So L is for listen. What do your readers care about? What are they already paying attention to?
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Study Facebook ads library, the Amazon ad copy of top-selling books in your genre, and the newsletter from authors in your genre.
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You can also study other creators, whether it be YouTubers, podcasters that are creating content in a similar niche to you. Then you wanna think about your open, right?
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Once you develop a good sense of what your readers care about, you wanna open up with something that can grab their attention with something unexpected as soon as they begin reading. Break convention.
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Make your images and first sentence inspire awe in your readers. A little pause here is one of my favorite marketing books is Audacious by Mark Schaefer. It's an incredible marketing book.
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My other really favorite book is Fans First by Jesse Cole. He's the owner of Fan of Bananas. So two just book recs if y'all want them. I think they're great authors. Those are great books.
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Now, why I mention them is because specifically Mark mentions in Audacious that the one place to really make content go viral is by inspiring awe in people. Awe is the emotion. That's what gets people to share things.
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And there's a lot of different ways you can create awe in people. It could be through comedy. It can be through shock. It can be through uncomfortable tension.
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It is totally up to you how you want to inspire awe in your readers. Now, I, when I was working for MrBeast, got to see probably the biggest awe machine in the world.
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We used the word spectacle there a lot when I was there. His average video gets literally over two hundred million views, and it's usually all these wild challenges that are hard to believe are even happening.
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And that's really the MrBeast viral formula and how he's able to go viral over and over again is just increasingly wild spectacles that get people to engage and get people to share.
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I'm not saying for you to give tons of money away like MrBeast because you might not have tons of money to give away like he does.
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However, what I am telling you to do is think about how you can break the rules, break the mold, and do something that surprises your readers because that is what's going to get you marketing attention, and that-Counts even in your copy.
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We've all seen so many different book blurbs and book descriptions where we know what's coming next and we tune out. So again, how can you really grab their attention? Next is understand.
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We wanna make readers understand how our story will help them right after the opening.
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Right after we grab their attention, we wanna meet them where they're at, and we want to show them what they will feel like when they read our story. Why is our story better than others? And last is do.
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This is when we want our readers to take action. How can they get your story right now? And it doesn't have to be your story.
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It could be another product, it could be another service or experience, and also it can be for a free story, a paid story. Whatever that call to action is, that's what happens when it's time to do.
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Now, let's move on to our next marketing superpower, which is the promotion elements. It's another teleportation power all about sharing your story.
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And these are the three things that all marketing needs to be successful, whether it's a short form video on social media or an advertisement.
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If you create great marketing content, one video or winning ad can net you tens of thousands of dollars.
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First, know that a winning piece of content often takes making lots of losing pieces of content and iterating over time. The good news is we will shorten that process for you using the three promotion elements.
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First is the hook. The definition here is it's the first part of your promotion that readers experience and makes them want more. There's a few types of hooks.
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You can have a visual hook, which could be an image or a video. You can have text. It can be text in an image, a post, or a headline. Or you can have audio.
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It could be music, sound effects or narration, probably paired with a video of some form. And my big tip here is that hooks are the key to winning promotions.
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Test as many hooks as possible and study what hooks work for other brands. Oftentimes, different hooks bring in people with different psychology.
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You actually can have multiple winning hooks that work on different types of readers who all will enjoy your stories. Next is value. The definition here is this is the meat of the marketing content.
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It provides a useful and/or entertaining experience to the reader. Types of value are humorous, educational. There could be discounts, freebies, an engrossing story.
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My big tip for you is to think about how to improve your readers' lives by experiencing your marketing. That's a huge phase shift. When you're marketing, you're not selling, you're doing service for your readers.
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So how can your literal marketing content be in service and entertain your readers just in and of itself? Lastly is the cliffhanger.
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The definition for here is this is where you leave your readers wanting more and taking action to get it. Types of cliffhangers are an email opt-in. You navigate to the webpage to view content.
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It could be purchase, pre-order, et cetera. And my tip for you is for your cliffhanger to have any impact, your value and hook must resonate with readers. Next up is reader sales triggers.
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This is another one of our teleportation powers all about sharing your story.
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Sales triggers are things that push your readers over the edge to take action you desire, whether you want to grow your mailing list, sell a new book, or grow income from another related product.
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The core reader triggers will help you increase the excitement of your fans for your offering and lead to lots more sales. In short, a great trigger gets your readers to convert, AKA take action more often.
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The four reader sales triggers are, number one, exclusivity, when something is only available to people who take a desired action. Bonus content for pre-ordering or purchasing a specific story.
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Could be epilogues, short stories, et cetera. Making a special edition exclusive to a Kickstarter or your direct store. The next reader trigger is limited time.
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This is when something is only available for a limited time. It could be a discount, a freebie, or a promotion for just a few days.
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It could be a pre-order bonus, a virtual event, or a limited edition merch that requires purchase before a specific date. Our next reader trigger is scarcity.
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This is when there's only a limited amount of something available. So this could be signed paperbacks, merch, and special editions as well. It could be a discount to the first 10 readers.
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There's lots of different options you can go with this. Next, and our final reader sales triggers is discount and freebies.
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We've talked about these a bit, but this is when a product or experience is available at a lower price than normal.
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Reader magnets are an example of this, which are stories that readers get for free in exchange for joining your mailing list. Another example is discount and free book promotions on retailers.
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My note for you is you can include multiple sales triggers in the same marketing campaign. Just be sure to not overuse sales triggers as they will lose effect on your readers.
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Next up, and it's our last teleportation power, is double dips. I love this one. It's a strategic move where accomplishing one task has more than one way to benefit your author business.
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Strategic authors look for double dips everywhere. In your marketing, double dips are activities you can repurpose to help you make more money and reach more fans.
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Once you learn to think through what makes a good double dip, you will start seeing and creating them everywhere. Here's how to unlock the power of double dips.
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So every double dip contains a primary benefit and then one or more secondary benefits.
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For a great double dip, they take little time and effort to execute, it's worth it just for the primary benefit alone, and it has multiple secondary benefits. Triple dips, anyone?
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And luckily, this doesn't involve triple dipping in nachos shared at a party. None of that. This is your own personal triple dip that's quite fun. Now, here's five great double dip ideas for authors.
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Number one is turn your writing into marketing. You can live stream your writing process, share early snippets of your books, and document progress on social media. Mal Cooper does this with live streams on Facebook.
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She streams herself writing constantly. It's awesome. And there's a lot of other examples of authors taking this approach.
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Brandon Sanderson also does, like, a weekly update on his YouTube channel, which is basically him sharing his writing process and what he's doing, and it's marketing as well. Next is to turn your research into marketing.
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So you could share your favorite books, anything you find in your research as education on social media.
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If you're doing a lot of research into a Scottish Highland romance, why not share some of the research you're doing? You could create a travel guide.
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You could create content that's going to engage readers who might then be interested in reading your book.Next is to turn domain expertise into a story.
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So if you have a day job in a specific industry, include it in your stories and make it a core part of your marketing. An example for this is romance for software engineers. There could be plenty.
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I've seen urban fantasy with a focus on medical professionals. There's so cool stuff you can do here. Now, my next thing is turn your fan engagement into marketing.
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Uniquely engage with readers at signings and Facebook groups, and share screenshots or videos with their permission on social media.
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Now, in my case, my unique double dip that I've done for the author marketing superpowers is I've created things like this cape that I'm wearing, if you're watching the video version, a huge pencil that I gave away at a party.
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Authors dressed up in costumes for. We had an incredible author who won the big pencil, but I'm using this big pencil in ads.
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I'm using it across social media pictures and really basically taking something that would've been just a gift to a reader and turning it into marketing promotion. Why not?
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So there's lots of different ways you can think about engaging with your fans and doing double dips there. My last one is turning your ideation into marketing. Why not share your new book ideas online?
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Share your new story ideas, your new product ideas, and see how people respond. Now, that's it for our teleportation powers. Let's move on to our magnetic powers, which is all about engaging readers.
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Our next superpower is The Power Law. This is the rule that the top one percent of books drive over half of all books sold. Now, to understand publishing means understanding what drives the power law.
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Since the best sellers drive such an outsized portion of sales compared to the rest of books, and many stick in the bestseller list for weeks, months, years, and sometimes decades, we have to understand what makes a book climb to the top of the power law.
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So books are high-friction content. Books take a long time to finish compared to other forms of content, and people read fewer books on average than other content formats.
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Social signals and language network effects are the most powerful forces in book sales. When something is selling a lot, it is also being talked about and a lot of readers are enjoying it.
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This leads to more sales since people value recommendations from people they trust in real life and online.
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Furthermore, if your book becomes canon in a genre or specific group of readers, you can be the default recommendation when someone is looking for a specific story.
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For example, Hunger Games is recommended frequently as a YA dystopian read. Now, publishing is made up of thousands of smaller power laws feeding into the overall mega bestsellers.
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So up to this point, you may have felt defeated. How can I break in if the top-selling books are so entrenched? The good news is that every genre, niche, and audience in publishing has a power law.
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Billionaire romance, there's a power law there. Cultivation lit RPG, there's a power law there.
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The more targeted you get in which readers you want your story to gain mind share, the easier it gets to identify which trusted people and spaces online you need to insert your book to climb the power law.
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Now we're up to the hero's lair superpower. This is another magnetic power all about engaging your readers. Your most important asset as an author is your mailing list, AKA hero's lair.
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Your mailing list consists of reader email addresses that have opted in to receive updates from you about your stories.
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Typically, you contact a mailing list through a newsletter platform, which makes it easy to send emails over the internet. Following are tips on how to manage and grow your mailing list. Manage your mailing list.
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First, you need to pick a newsletter platform. The top five platforms I recommend for authors are MailerLite, Beehiiv, Kit, Substack, and Klaviyo.
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I link to an article with a detailed breakdown in the description where you can find my full review of the five. You can find my full review of the top five newsletter platforms for authors.
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So next, you wanna create groups and segments inside your newsletter platform.
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Groups are based on how subscribers join your newsletter, whereas segments are based on how readers behave in your newsletter, AKA how often they open specific emails and other specific activities.
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Then you're gonna wanna create a signup form. This is a place where readers can learn what your newsletter is about and enter their email to join. Now you've got it all set up, but how do you grow your mailing list?
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First, you wanna share your signup form. Include it on your social media bios, in the back of your books, and in the newsletter swaps you do with other authors. Next, offer freebies.
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To encourage readers to join your newsletter, offer a free story, like a novella or bonus content. Just remember, the freebie must be just as good, if not better, than your normal stories.
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Typically, a freebie is a complete story arc or experience rather than a teaser and ties into the other books you're selling. Lastly is growth strategies.
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Swaps with other authors, group giveaways, paid ads, and reader referral programs, these are typically available on your newsletter platform, are all great ways to grow. Next up is reader journeys.
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This is another magnetic power about engaging readers, and this is the set of steps readers take from their first impression of us until they are loyal customers.
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We often put a lot of thought into the plot of our stories. What about the plot of our marketing? This is the core of a reader journey.
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How can we systematically take a reader from a stranger to someone who loves your stories and has put money in your pocket? It comes down to building an incredible reader journey unique to you.
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Here are the five stages of a reader journey. Stage one is genre aware. These are readers aware that the kinds of stories you write exist. So the big question here is where will you find readers already in stage one?
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And if they aren't here yet, how will you get new readers to this stage? Or in other words, how will you introduce them to the genre? Stage two is story aware. So now readers must know your story exists.
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So how are you gonna let readers know about your story and how will you talk about it?Think about the copy, images, and experiences you create. Stage three is story started.
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How will you convince readers to not only purchase your story, but begin reading? The TBR pile, AKA to be read, is your enemy. Stage four is story satisfied.
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This is when someone's now bought your book and has started reading and likes your story. This is a great place to be, but we are not done yet.
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If someone buys a book from you once, they aren't a customer, they were a customer. This is where stage five comes in, loyal reader.
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This is where we must develop experiences and communication that retain readers and encourage them to buy stories and other products from us continually.
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A note here on reader journeys is that I want you to think about your book marketing like you think about plotting your stories.
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It's so important to think about the reader experience first and to put your readers first always. We put a lot of time and attention into our books, but the thing is, as authors, our job isn't to write books.
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Our job is to entertain our readers.
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And if we start with that thought in mind, our whole process is going to look radically different, including how we market and how we present ourselves to our readers throughout their journey with us.
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Now, our next superpower is emails to readers. This is another magnetic power all about engaging readers.
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I know emails gets two superpowers that might feel unfair to all the other amazing things in authorship, but candidly, emails are so important.
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Like, your email list is essential, and if you don't have an email list as an author, I highly recommend you set one up. It can be free to get started on a lot of different platforms.
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You don't need to actually pay anything out of pocket, and you can start collecting emails and building your list. How to send emails to readers that supercharge your income, that's what this superpower is all about.
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Now first, the right number of emails to send your readers is every time you have something valuable to provide them. There's not a specific cadence. There's not too much or too little.
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It's just whenever you have something valuable to provide them.
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Luckily, we could bucket all of this into automations, regular emails, and playbooks for launching new books that allow us to market past, present, and future stories to readers without headaches through the power of email.
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Let's start with automations to upsell new readers. So these ensure every new reader receives a sequence of emails that build trust, delivers f- their freebie, and give them a chance to buy books from your backlist.
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I don't recommend having crazy advanced automation to start off. Just a few emails, one, maybe three at most, is good to get you going.
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But eventually, you're able to start segmenting your list and y- you can use things like Tally.so to really ask your readers personalized questions that can then direct your readers into your mailing list and into your back catalog based on their preferences and what they enjoy.
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You can even market to them in specific ways and have specific copy tailored to them based on what you know they're interested in because certain books have different selling points to different readers. So go wild.
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And the next thing is thinking about your new launches, right? And oftentimes, I see authors send out, like, one email about a new launch, and I was so guilty of this.
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I would literally spend, like, a month writing a book and then spend 30 minutes writing my marketing email and be like, "Okay, that's it. On to the next book."
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And I would wonder why, like, there wasn't much hype around my launches. Like, why aren't my readers super excited? Oh, that's right. You didn't do anything to make them excited. You didn't do a buildup.
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So at minimum, I recommend a five-email launch sequence so that you can make as much money as possible from your mailing list at launch. One is a pre-launch email. It's gonna let your readers know fun stuff's coming.
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Then a launch day email.
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Then an email sent a few days after launch, and then two emails on the final day of your launch campaign, and this should be the last day that you're offering any sort of pre-order bonus, exclusive discount, or other benefit for buying the book.
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Honestly, this process is simple. You might think five emails is a lot, but it actually isn't that much to hit readers with.
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You'll be shocked that so many aren't gonna buy until they actually get it in their inbox multiple times because they might be busy the first time they see it.
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They need that extra reminder, so please do that for your readers. It's, it's a good thing. They want your book. Let them know about it 'cause they want it.
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Now, regular emails are emails in between product launches, in between stories, and other things you might have for your readers where you just wanna keep in touch with them, and this is where it can feel so intimidating.
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What do we share with our readers? But these emails, they can include roundups of books you've been reading, updates on your writing progress, bonus tidbits and insights from your stories.
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Ultimately, the more you email your readers high-quality content, the better. And once a week is a good goal, but many authors have great lists and email much less or sometimes even more frequently. Here's the deal.
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If you combine something like author masks with this superpower, we're gonna start to have a lot of fun.
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So imagine sending emails from your characters to your readers so they're the ones reaching out and updating them about things that have been going on in their world between the books.
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There, there's some fun things you can do here, and I would really think about layering in some of our other superpowers to add color to your emails. Next is testing new products.
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So when you have some new story ideas, merch, or, like, other products you wanna create, your mailing list is the first place people will go to. I personally love doing this.
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Once you start to build up your mailing list, you can test new story ideas with them first. You can see if they'll pre-order your books first.
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All of the testing gets easier as you go along 'cause you'll start to build an audience that literally makes the testing process easier. That's like another flywheel, the testing flywheel.
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So I love doing that, and I recommend constantly testing new things before you make it 'cause you wanna serve your readers. And serving your readers, again, isn't about writing a book.
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It's about understanding what they enjoy so you can go and create that. Now, our next superpower is social listening. This is another magnetic power all about engaging our readers. And look, social listening
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sounds scary, but I promise it's awesome. It's all about observing who talks about your books and rewarding the people who support you.This is not reading every one-star review.
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Instead, it's about focusing on the positive things readers say about your books and showing your gratitude.
416
01:07:00.008 --> 01:07:07.548
It sounds simple, but when done right, it can encourage readers to share your book, which will lead to tons more sales. How to do social listening right.
417
01:07:07.808 --> 01:07:15.208
The first step is to enter the channels where reader conversations happen. Join popular Facebook groups and Discords where your readers congregate.
418
01:07:15.708 --> 01:07:24.568
Follow influential reading creators, BookTubers, book talkers, et cetera, and encourage fans to send direct messages and reply to every email you get from your readers.
419
01:07:25.388 --> 01:07:34.048
Step two is when fans share their love privately or over social media, praise them for it. Share how much it means to you that they took the time to read your story and reward them where you can.
420
01:07:34.508 --> 01:07:42.248
Do you have a bonus chapter or teaser for your next book you can share and hype them up? Step number three is sit back and enjoy as you're gonna share your story with even more people now.
421
01:07:43.068 --> 01:07:51.088
You have just rewarded someone for giving praise to your work, and the more they do it, keep rewarding. Making it easy for readers to share your stories is crucial.
422
01:07:51.628 --> 01:08:03.468
Encourage gifting, buy one copy, get another copy discounted, and repost your reader reviews so that people are encouraged to also review your book and then see how awesome it is, and if they haven't read it yet, want to go and read it.
423
01:08:03.508 --> 01:08:13.678
This is another magnetic power all about how to engage readers. A minimum viable story, or MVS, is when your story is ready to be marketed to readers to test its reader retention.
424
01:08:14.448 --> 01:08:25.968
One of the toughest things about authorship is how you know when to release your book. MVS clarifies when you're ready to launch your book and share future drafts of your story with the world.
425
01:08:26.028 --> 01:08:32.688
So when is your story an MVS? As soon as you have something that you aren't embarrassed to publish, are still a little scared to hit the button.
426
01:08:33.168 --> 01:08:38.408
I know this is nebulous, but I know so many authors who get stuck in endless revisions. I want you to get out of that.
427
01:08:38.708 --> 01:08:48.748
And I'm not asking you to publish something that's super messy, half scrabbled notes together from a first draft. Some of us write clean first drafts, and that's wonderful.
428
01:08:48.848 --> 01:08:56.928
You might be comfortable publishing your first draft and sharing with readers immediately once you hit the end. And other times, you might feel less comfortable doing this.
429
01:08:57.388 --> 01:09:01.128
And revisions are a great thing, but you need a point to press stop.
430
01:09:01.488 --> 01:09:09.488
And specifically, if you have the first few chapters of your book in a place that you feel good about, I encourage you to get feedback earlier rather than later.
431
01:09:10.148 --> 01:09:16.888
You will never know your reader retention before you share your books with readers, and knowing your reader retention is what can help you make your books better.
432
01:09:17.508 --> 01:09:25.188
So to make your books better, you have to share it with the world. So you're in this weird catch 22 where you pretty much have to start sharing it with your audience sooner than later.
433
01:09:25.648 --> 01:09:37.138
Thus, the goal with an MVS is to address issues keeping readers from turning the pages in earlier editions of your story or get your story to a point where you feel that your initial draft is engaging for readers.
434
01:09:37.828 --> 01:09:45.408
Then you're ready to start sharing your MVS with readers, get data on your reader retention, and revise your story to create a better draft.
435
01:09:45.448 --> 01:10:09.458
And this whole process is really why I'm building ReaderMeter and what that whole platform's for, to really make this whole process super easy and streamlined for authors because I think the most important thing in marketing is actually the first steps in marketing of your story and that interplay between your reader experience and your story and using the data from your reader's experience and how long they're reading and what chapters they're reading to make your book better.
436
01:10:10.018 --> 01:10:20.068
So is your story engaging to readers? Once your instinct says yes, you're ready to publish. It doesn't have to be perfect, just something that is likely engaging, hence viable enough.
437
01:10:20.098 --> 01:10:28.988
And if you are stuck in endless revisions to make your story more viable, don't worry. Your MVS is typically first released to beta readers before being published widely, right?
438
01:10:29.028 --> 01:10:37.278
This is just the first minimum viable story you're gonna start getting in front of readers. Always err on the side of getting feedback earlier rather than later.
439
01:10:37.278 --> 01:10:47.168
You can always make your story more engaging, but you need to see if others will read it till the end first. Now, minimum viable story is very much interrelated to story-market fit.
440
01:10:47.228 --> 01:10:54.868
Essentially, you release a minimum viable story, and you continue iterating that minimum viable story until it reaches story-market fit.
441
01:10:54.908 --> 01:11:02.068
And then once you have story-market fit, you're ready to really scale your marketing, which is what we're gonna talk all about in our next set of superpowers.
442
01:11:02.078 --> 01:11:10.908
So hopefully this starts to make sense how these superpowers play together. They're pretty foundational, and these next two concepts are gonna dive into it even more.
443
01:11:10.988 --> 01:11:23.248
So this next superpower is reader retention, another magnetic power all about engaging readers. And reader retention is the percentage of readers who start your story that make it to a section of your story.
444
01:11:23.288 --> 01:11:33.028
For example, a page number or chapter. For understanding reader behavior, no metric is more powerful than reader retention. There is just one problem.
445
01:11:33.068 --> 01:11:38.908
With current e-book retailers, it is impossible to get a representation of your reader retention.
446
01:11:38.968 --> 01:11:46.298
That's why tools like ReaderMeter are designed to show your story's reader retention by allowing you to see exactly where readers stop turning the page in your stories.
447
01:11:46.928 --> 01:11:53.238
Retention matters because your reader retention determines how many readers complete your story and buy more stories from you.
448
01:11:53.848 --> 01:12:03.508
It's awesome if you get ten thousand people to purchase book one, but if only one percent of them finish book one and buy book two, building a sustainable author business will be challenging.
449
01:12:03.548 --> 01:12:08.818
Reader retention is useful in helping you see what specific chapters of your story readers are dropping off the most.
450
01:12:09.438 --> 01:12:16.768
Likewise, reader retention can differ based on reader profile or the likes and interests of the person reading your book. How to improve your reader retention.
451
01:12:17.408 --> 01:12:21.148
First, revise your story where retention rates drop the most to make your story more engaging to readers.
452
01:12:22.028 --> 01:12:27.028
Then, change your marketing to target readers with different interests who are more likely to read through your story.
453
01:12:27.068 --> 01:12:37.268
And last, change your packaging, book cover, and description so that your reader expectations are more aligned with their experience inside the story. Next is retention point.
454
01:12:37.838 --> 01:12:41.748
This is another magnetic power about engaging readers, and it really builds off reader retention.
455
01:12:42.168 --> 01:12:53.768
So the specific part of a story where once readers get there, they are very likely to finish the entire book is the retention point. We all know the feeling. You're reading a story, and you are slowly getting into it.
456
01:12:53.808 --> 01:13:02.104
Then all of a sudden, you pass the point of no return. There's no way anything will get between you andAnd the end, even if it requires pulling a few late nights.
457
01:13:02.764 --> 01:13:07.644
As you'll see, the retention point is one of our most powerful marketing superpowers. The magic of retention point.
458
01:13:08.204 --> 01:13:13.404
Your goal when marketing is not to sell books, it's to help readers get to the retention point of your story. Here's how.
459
01:13:14.064 --> 01:13:21.544
Number one, make sure your cover, blurb, and marketing align with the first few pages of your story. Naturally, you will see the steepest drop-off at the beginning of your story.
460
01:13:22.304 --> 01:13:29.684
Combat this by setting expectations in a way that builds reader trust. Number two is share your story up until the retention point for free with readers.
461
01:13:30.044 --> 01:13:38.684
If you have a hunch about where your story becomes truly unputdownable, then why not share the parts of your story before the retention point with as many readers as possible?
462
01:13:39.133 --> 01:13:47.144
And lastly, remind your readers to read your freebies more often than you think. Even if readers download your freebie and are on your mailing list, that doesn't mean they are engaged.
463
01:13:47.184 --> 01:13:52.884
Send an automation sequence to check in and encourage your readers to read your freebie. Okay, quick story time here.
464
01:13:53.024 --> 01:14:05.144
I've become so obsessed with retention because it's probably the single greatest problem I had in my author career, and then a power that I got to see so powerful that it's created a multi-billion dollar enterprise.
465
01:14:05.644 --> 01:14:16.664
Let me explain. When I first got started publishing, I was so focused on getting my books out, writing as best stories I could, getting feedback from beta readers. And again, I thought I was writing great books.
466
01:14:16.724 --> 01:14:26.424
My beta readers liked them. I got good reviews. If you look on Amazon, my books tend to have above four stars. My first book doesn't, but the rest of mine tend to have above four stars. I thought I was doing well.
467
01:14:26.524 --> 01:14:33.824
I thought my books were ready to be shared with a bunch of readers. So I started marketing and running Facebook ads, and I started getting sales.
468
01:14:33.944 --> 01:14:42.874
I was like five thousand in the store for a while, and I was feeling really good about myself. Really, I was ranking sick and I was just going, "Okay, I'll start making money eventually."
469
01:14:42.944 --> 01:14:51.374
I was making back some of my money in ads, but I was not really profiting that one. I thought, "Ah, it's read-through. My readers will get to book two eventually. They're not there yet. It takes them time."
470
01:14:52.044 --> 01:14:56.684
Weeks go by, months go by, and eventually I had to sit back and realize they're not gonna make it there.
471
01:14:57.204 --> 01:15:06.804
And I spent so much time and energy emotionally, financially, I felt just completely burnt, and it was one of the worst experiences of my life. I felt terrible as a writer.
472
01:15:06.884 --> 01:15:18.184
I'm like, "The only explanation for me failing is that I'm a bad writer." And the truth is, I wasn't necessarily a bad writer, I just wasn't writing the most engaging stories, and that's okay. That is okay.
473
01:15:18.244 --> 01:15:24.584
I was having a lot of readers drop off in the beginning. That's okay. Here's my problem. I wish I knew how to make it better.
474
01:15:25.244 --> 01:15:30.844
I wish I knew what I could use, what data was coming in, because my readers were saying it was good. I'm like, "What chapter do I need to change?
475
01:15:30.864 --> 01:15:37.304
If I just need to go back and rewrite the first few pages, I'll go do that. If they're dropping off in the second chapter, I'll go do that." I was prepared to do it all, but I didn't have any data.
476
01:15:37.664 --> 01:15:44.684
So that's where ReaderMeter is unbelievably powerful. But the reason I actually came around to wanting to develop this came years later.
477
01:15:45.064 --> 01:15:51.724
Five years later, after this experience, I was working for MrBeast and I was working on the strategy team, which is the data and growth team at MrBeast.
478
01:15:52.164 --> 01:15:57.264
I was the right-hand man to the chief strategy officer, who's the right-hand man to Jimmy, which Jimmy is MrBeast.
479
01:15:57.324 --> 01:16:04.864
And for those who don't know MrBeast, it's the largest video production company for social media in the world. It gets three billion views a month. It's insane.
480
01:16:04.924 --> 01:16:14.004
Hundreds and hundreds of million subscribers and hundreds of millions of views per video on average. It's truly a machine like none other. And going on the inside, I realized how they do it.
481
01:16:14.644 --> 01:16:18.614
It's all a data science operation based on the retention their videos are getting.
482
01:16:19.084 --> 01:16:26.284
YouTube gives great data on video retention, and they're essentially in this constant iterative process that I got to see the inside of and help grow.
483
01:16:26.324 --> 01:16:35.084
And now I wanna give you those same superpowers with ReaderMeter, but also just this understanding of retention. Retention is so important. It's foundational to everything.
484
01:16:35.104 --> 01:16:40.724
And if you can nail retention, you basically have the ultimate cheat code to running a great author business.
485
01:16:40.764 --> 01:16:48.884
And so much of marketing is actually discovering who will be retained by your stories and what can you do in your story to retain them.
486
01:16:48.924 --> 01:16:59.104
And that process is really where, like, the first thirty superpowers are focused on helping you hone in. The next twenty superpowers, which we're about to get into, are about scaling once you've achieved that.
487
01:16:59.144 --> 01:17:08.464
But once you nail that one thing, it can just be one story that changes your life, one story that goes, quote-unquote, "viral". But you have to focus on that retention to do it. I'm so passionate about this topic.
488
01:17:08.524 --> 01:17:15.463
It's the superpowers that I'm most passionate about because the power that this has to unlock in the author industry is pretty much unlike anything else.
489
01:17:15.524 --> 01:17:19.044
Could totally reinvent how you think about writing books, how you think about your writing process.
490
01:17:19.184 --> 01:17:30.604
And again, I've seen this at the highest scale, and I've seen what MrBeast has been able to do, and using this philosophy was able to create the second biggest show on Amazon Prime Video ever, only surpassed by Lord of the Rings.
491
01:17:30.764 --> 01:17:34.544
Just insane stuff and incredible what has been accomplished.
492
01:17:35.284 --> 01:17:50.064
And I've seen the downside in my own personal career of not having that data and not really understanding and hyper-focusing on this, and instead thinking that my problem was a million other things when there was actually this one really important thing that was actually my problem.
493
01:17:50.444 --> 01:17:59.924
That's my soapbox. I'll get off of it. And if you're not in the wait list for ReaderMeter yet, definitely join. It's gonna be an amazing product, and I'm gonna make it available at a lifetime fee for everyone too.
494
01:18:00.164 --> 01:18:05.734
No extra subscriptions to add to your life, just a really fun tool that's gonna make your author life a lot easier.
495
01:18:06.184 --> 01:18:15.124
And even before ReaderMeter's launched and even after, whatever you choose to do, remember retention and remember the retention point because it's everything and you can see it.
496
01:18:15.144 --> 01:18:22.424
Like, the first couple minutes of a video at Beats were way more important than the last couple minutes because that was where people dropped off.
497
01:18:22.624 --> 01:18:31.064
So much focus and attention went into those first few minutes, and you should be thinking about that same thing in your book in the first few chapters of your story. It's like what agents do, right?
498
01:18:31.344 --> 01:18:33.484
I obviously focus mostly on helping self-published authors.
499
01:18:33.644 --> 01:18:49.264
I love all authors, including if you're hybrid or tr- trad published and especially if you've gone down the rabbit hole of querying agents, just how important it is to make sure you get your query right, but more importantly, get the first few pages right, the first chapter right.
500
01:18:49.584 --> 01:18:59.424
That's so important in hooking people in. And what I've found is you need actual data on how readers are experiencing that and if they're actually sticking with you. That is the real insight.
501
01:18:59.464 --> 01:19:02.744
Okay, so now for our next superpower. Don't shill your story.
502
01:19:03.184 --> 01:19:12.352
This is another magnetic power all about engaging your readers.So when you shill, you constantly share something to the point it becomes annoying and loses impact.
503
01:19:12.772 --> 01:19:22.672
When we shill something, we turn our brand into a billboard without providing our readers any value. People don't have a reason to listen to us, and our asks of our audience become empty.
504
01:19:23.522 --> 01:19:35.312
Too many of us try to sell our books by asking readers to buy our stories. The real way to combat this is to build trust in your audience. Giving is true having. The opposite of shilling is giving to your readers.
505
01:19:36.002 --> 01:19:45.172
When you share content online, is it entertaining and valuable to readers in and of itself? If you have trouble figuring out how to do this, ask yourself which creators you consistently enjoy content from.
506
01:19:45.192 --> 01:19:52.372
What can you give to your readers that would build trust with them and grow your audience? Is it book recommendations and detailed reviews in your genre?
507
01:19:53.072 --> 01:20:04.092
Is it great stories native to the platform they are already on, video web stories, educational blogs, et cetera? Make sure whatever you give away is better than the paid content most others create.
508
01:20:04.132 --> 01:20:12.492
Make sure your marketing in and of itself is better than the paid content most others create, and attracts a similar audience that would enjoy your books. This is how you really build trust.
509
01:20:13.092 --> 01:20:19.272
And don't be afraid to promote. You deserve to be paid for your stories and should ask your readers to buy your books directly.
510
01:20:19.282 --> 01:20:27.612
You deserve to be paid for your stories, and you should ask your readers to buy your books directly. Instead of asking them constantly, the key is to build hype and provide value 80% of the time.
511
01:20:28.172 --> 01:20:40.552
That way, you don't exhaust people who may just not be ready for it right now but will be in the near future. So now we're onto expansion powers, all about scaling your readers. The reader growth engines.
512
01:20:40.812 --> 01:20:49.582
These are the scalable marketing methods you can utilize to grow your readership. Sometimes it feels like there are a million different ways to market our books.
513
01:20:50.332 --> 01:20:58.392
In truth, there are only three ways to market our books that can scale to thousands and even hundreds of thousands of readers.
514
01:20:59.032 --> 01:21:06.502
Once you reach story-market fit, it's crucial to unlock the power of the reader growth engines. The three reader growth engines.
515
01:21:07.092 --> 01:21:13.292
Mastering one reader growth engine is enough to get you to six figures and even seven figures in income.
516
01:21:13.332 --> 01:21:32.692
And honestly, one of the biggest mistakes I see authors make is trying to master all the reader growth engines, trying to do every little thing, or trying one thing out, maybe it's Amazon Ads, maybe it's TikTok, and when it doesn't work in the beginning, immediately jumping to something new, then jumping to something new, and then jumping to something new, rather than trying to really stick to one engine and build and refine it over time.
517
01:21:33.172 --> 01:21:41.312
The first reader growth engine is content marketing. What it is when you create content that is posted on social platforms and gains discovery algorithmically.
518
01:21:41.932 --> 01:21:51.292
Why it's scalable is as you create more content, your old and new content continues to reach readers, and typically your audience for your content will build, so you get more reach over time.
519
01:21:51.312 --> 01:21:58.472
Number two is paid advertising. This is when you pay to reach the audience of a platform or person.
520
01:21:59.192 --> 01:22:08.972
It's scalable because as long as your marketing is profitable, you can use the same creative over and over again to get millions of impressions across platform, and ideally, lots of profit.
521
01:22:09.032 --> 01:22:19.732
Now, number three for our reader growth engine is collaborations. This is when you reach the audience of someone else by working with them, usually in exchange for giving them access to your audience.
522
01:22:20.312 --> 01:22:29.812
It's scalable because you can collaborate with dozens of creators or even a few really large ones that can help you reach millions of readers. And our next superpower is marketing fuel.
523
01:22:30.472 --> 01:22:38.052
You only need one marketing channel to reach scale. Why not make the marketing you invest in fun and energizing?
524
01:22:38.112 --> 01:22:48.952
This superpower is all about giving you permission to switch up your marketing when you aren't feeling inspired and double down on the things you love to do. Is your marketing fueling you?
525
01:22:49.552 --> 01:22:59.452
Ask yourself these three reflective questions. Number one: What platforms do you spend the most time on, and what marketing seems to have the greatest impact? Why?
526
01:22:59.472 --> 01:23:11.172
Number two: How often do you spend marketing each week on average? What typically are you doing to grow your readership? And number three: Do you enjoy these activities? Why or why not?
527
01:23:11.212 --> 01:23:20.252
If you find you are spending more time on the things you don't enjoy than marketing you do enjoy, then shift your time towards the things you enjoy.
528
01:23:20.852 --> 01:23:33.072
If you don't enjoy any of your marketing, then try out new channels and approaches. Remember, great marketing is storytelling, and great stories are creative and entertaining. Next up is content cannon.
529
01:23:33.632 --> 01:23:37.932
This is another expansion power all about helping you scale your readers.
530
01:23:37.992 --> 01:23:49.432
The more marketing content you create and the faster you iterate on that content, the higher the likelihood you generate tons of sales for your books. It only takes a few winning pieces of content to change your life.
531
01:23:50.112 --> 01:24:02.252
Whether it's a Facebook ad, an Instagram Reel, or any other promotion, one piece of content can generate tens of thousands and even hundreds of thousands of dollars. The content cannon is our winning weapon.
532
01:24:02.292 --> 01:24:13.812
Firing your content cannon. Number one, choose one medium to create content in. Newsletters, audio podcasts, short-form videos, et cetera. Number two, make content as much as possible. Start simple.
533
01:24:14.512 --> 01:24:24.432
Number three, iterate on what is getting you the most views and engagement. Study what is working for others in your niche and beyond. Adapt their strategies to your own content and make it better.
534
01:24:25.092 --> 01:24:37.002
Number four, turn the content that performs best organically into paid advertisement. Expand their reach and make even more money from it. Remember, a winning series must have winning marketing content.
535
01:24:37.652 --> 01:24:44.512
Next up for our next superpower is the swap secret. This is another expansion power all about scaling your readers.
536
01:24:45.172 --> 01:24:54.852
Turn an average swap into an incredible marketing campaign for you and other authors by creating an experience readers actually wanna be a part of. Most swaps are not effective.
537
01:24:55.272 --> 01:25:05.612
Most focus on list size and doing as many swaps as possible versus engaging with readers and making something that stands out in their inbox. Here's three ways to create excitement around book swaps.
538
01:25:06.192 --> 01:25:17.672
Number one is discounts and freebies. This is the most common way authors do swaps, often overused and doesn't get people emotionally bought into your story.Free is a commodity, not a selling point.
539
01:25:17.712 --> 01:25:27.072
Number two is reader events. Create joint giveaways of unique prizes, live streams, book clubs, and more. Give readers a reason to participate. Number three is collaborative content.
540
01:25:27.492 --> 01:25:32.932
Create bonus content, short stories, or even integrations of characters, settings, and other IP elements.
541
01:25:33.352 --> 01:25:45.172
In short, give readers of another author a reason to read your story because it already contains elements they engaged with. With swaps, make sure to always follow through on your promises and be kind to other authors.
542
01:25:45.262 --> 01:25:52.512
It's as simple to do a swap as simply asking a fellow author. Now, I wanna share with you a little case study that is incredible.
543
01:25:52.692 --> 01:26:12.422
So a few top YouTubers that I've been able to work with a little bit behind the scenes have done something awesome that I know can be adapted to the author world, which is they figured out on the language tracks for different languages, 'cause you can have videos dubbed in various languages, so you can watch one video in English on YouTube and also watch that same video in Spanish.
544
01:26:12.452 --> 01:26:22.912
It's just a different audio track. Obviously, the same person might not be fluent in English and Spanish, so they'll have a different person voiceovering the Spanish audio track. This is very common.
545
01:26:22.952 --> 01:26:25.732
A huge part of the voice acting industry is dubbing.
546
01:26:26.212 --> 01:26:40.532
So instead of having who might be a super talented voice actor act a specific character's part in a video, they'll have someone famous do it, another famous YouTuber, and that sort of collaboration really gets their fans involved because they're like, "We wanna hear his voice.
547
01:26:40.552 --> 01:26:47.972
We wanna hear him act this on this specific video." And there can be an incremental uplift of millions and millions of views on a video from that.
548
01:26:48.052 --> 01:26:58.512
So you wanna think about what are ways you can authentically engage what another author's fans are interested in into your story, and obviously doing it in a way in which you have their permission.
549
01:26:58.592 --> 01:27:07.072
Like obviously you're not just ripping off a creator's voice and putting it, you know, as the voiceover in your video. That's nuts and terrible and violates IP laws.
550
01:27:07.172 --> 01:27:17.412
Instead, like work with them, collaborate with them, and see how you can bend the rules of what a collaboration should be to make something better for your readers. Now, our next superpower is the launch code.
551
01:27:17.752 --> 01:27:27.752
This is a simple process to help you launch anything in your author business faster and more effectively. It's easy to get cold feet and sit around with a great story or product for months without hitting launch.
552
01:27:28.252 --> 01:27:34.982
The launch code gives you the playbook to launch something fast and build hype. If it works well, then you can double down and continue marketing.
553
01:27:34.992 --> 01:27:47.272
If it doesn't meet expectations, go back to the drawing board and create something new. Now, the easy launch method. There's three key rules of easy launching. Rule number one is you must launch early and often.
554
01:27:47.312 --> 01:27:54.472
It's better to get insights from the market about a potential story or product before you create it. Rule number two is launching must be simple.
555
01:27:54.492 --> 01:28:05.462
It's more important to launch in the right direction than make the most noise. And rule number three is launches must be fun. We need to make sure this process is not something we dread, but is an exciting challenge.
556
01:28:06.072 --> 01:28:15.331
And here are three steps to easy launching. Step number one is the pre-launch. Set a goal for how many people you'd like on a wait list before you deem creating the story is worth it to you.
557
01:28:15.912 --> 01:28:23.212
Now market your wait list and ensure you can get people to sign up with their email. Step number two is a soft launch. Now you are ready to accept payment for the story.
558
01:28:23.612 --> 01:28:33.172
Your goal is to share it with people on the wait list and see if they enjoy it. Step number three is the big launch. Now you're ready for a bigger marketing push. Share it everywhere you can.
559
01:28:33.832 --> 01:28:43.052
The key is to invest time in step number one, trying things first, so you can press the big launch on the right story. Don't hit the big red button too early. Have fun.
560
01:28:43.472 --> 01:28:53.612
Pre-launching and soft launching are a lot less stressful than you think. Now, next up is the invisibility cloak. This is another expansion power all about helping you scale your readers.
561
01:28:54.222 --> 01:29:04.452
So one of the sneakiest ways to market your story is when readers talk about your books in online communities, AKA grassroots marketing. Is it an ad if no one knows it is?
562
01:29:04.632 --> 01:29:16.652
I'll admit, this superpower in the wrong hands is nothing short of villainous. The invisibility cloak allows you to take the passions of your fans and amplify them in the right spaces to reach more readers.
563
01:29:17.272 --> 01:29:27.421
Now, how to get readers talking about your stories everywhere. The foundation of grassroots marketing campaigns is that there must be a specific story or product readers will be sparking conversations around.
564
01:29:27.472 --> 01:29:33.972
There also has to be a list of targeted communities, comment sections, or other online forums you want the conversation to take place in.
565
01:29:34.492 --> 01:29:43.432
And lastly, you have to have a way to recruit a coordinated group of people to talk about your story. Typically, this will be your existing fans so that these are authentic conversations.
566
01:29:43.492 --> 01:29:48.092
Next is how to run a grassroots campaign. Build authentic relationships with real people, real readers.
567
01:29:48.812 --> 01:29:54.892
Then send them the story you want them to talk about, either digitally or physically ahead of when you want them to talk about it.
568
01:29:54.932 --> 01:30:02.152
Once the story or product is live for the entire world to experience, have the people you sent your story to earlier talk about it online.
569
01:30:02.812 --> 01:30:14.132
Crucially, provide them with places you want them to post about your book, communities, et cetera, and ideas for messages to make it super easy for them to spark conversation. So this is a lot like a street team.
570
01:30:14.792 --> 01:30:26.092
The key thing I want you to remember here is that a small group of people who really are invested in a part of what you're doing can go way farther than a street team of 10,000 people.
571
01:30:26.172 --> 01:30:36.252
Likewise, you really want them posting in communities. These online Reddit and Facebook groups, and also Discords to a certain extent as well, are really powerful places to spark these conversations.
572
01:30:36.312 --> 01:30:49.572
So you're deliberately having them share these posts and their conversations and asking questions about the book, sparking fan moments, sharing fan art inside of the reader cities that you found for your story.
573
01:30:50.212 --> 01:30:52.632
So this next superpower is freebie fun.
574
01:30:53.212 --> 01:31:04.252
It's another expansion power all about scaling your readers, and this is a framework for giving away freebies and five proven categories of freebies that help authors grow their audience and business.
575
01:31:04.872 --> 01:31:12.682
It's not enough to simply give, give something away for free. Ever tried to give away a used toothbrush for free? Probably would struggle with it.
576
01:31:13.252 --> 01:31:26.444
We need to give something away that our readers actually want and that build trust with them that our paid stories are amazing.Freebies are something that everyone gets for free who takes desired action, typically signing up for your mailing list, so that you can later market them as paid products.
577
01:31:26.484 --> 01:31:34.744
There's group promotions. You can work with other authors to give multiple stories away for free to attract readers. You can also use freebies inside of paid books from retailers.
578
01:31:35.284 --> 01:31:43.164
Encourage readers to sign up for your mailing list and get bonus content. You can also use freebies for advertising. You can use them literally to grow your mailing list.
579
01:31:43.304 --> 01:31:48.704
People can opt in and get your freebie, and you can run an ad to that landing page.
580
01:31:49.464 --> 01:32:00.264
Now, there's five types of freebies: full-length digital books, audio or e-book, bonus content, think notes from the characters, et cetera. There's events, virtual cons with creators in your genre.
581
01:32:00.304 --> 01:32:04.704
You can do a short story or a novella. You can also do just access to a community of like-minded readers.
582
01:32:05.384 --> 01:32:13.524
The most important part is to make your freebie an incredible experience and to work with other authors who are also committed to doing the same.
583
01:32:14.124 --> 01:32:21.664
If you're doing a group promotion with some other authors and maybe you're all sharing a freebie together and building your list, that's amazing.
584
01:32:21.724 --> 01:32:26.644
There's some incredible services that allow you to do that and to actually grow your list together.
585
01:32:27.224 --> 01:32:38.864
The problem is this, if other authors don't have good freebies, they might inadvertently lose trust in readers who won't even make it to your book because they thought, "Ah, all those books from that promotion weren't very good.
586
01:32:39.004 --> 01:32:48.604
I tried out one or two and they weren't for me." So you wanna make sure you're working with people who are really committed to creating a great experience for readers who will enjoy the type of books you write.
587
01:32:48.644 --> 01:32:58.744
Like, it, it's probably gonna be tough to make the same promo work for horror and steamy romance. Possible, actually. That maybe is more possible than other ones, but you get my drift.
588
01:32:58.784 --> 01:33:07.484
Now, another thing I wanna mention is that freebies also are a commodity. Like, imagine if you are walking through a market, right?
589
01:33:08.404 --> 01:33:17.264
And there's 100 people there all giving away free things, but they're all giving away cheese. This one has their flavor of cheese. This one has that flavor of cheese.
590
01:33:17.884 --> 01:33:22.774
But after seeing a couple, you're like, "I don't want any more cheese. I'm done with cheese."
591
01:33:23.384 --> 01:33:33.424
Versus you walk into a market, and instead of it all being cheese, you've got chocolate, you've got fruits, you've got different clothes that you can get samples of, makeup.
592
01:33:33.434 --> 01:33:46.124
All of a sudden, you're probably gonna take free things from everyone. So how does this impact you as an author? Turns out you can think of all of us authors offering freebies like one ginormous market.
593
01:33:46.384 --> 01:33:54.344
We're all screaming at readers, "Come on, grab my thing!" And they're all like, "Yeah, I'm good. I don't-- I've seen that 100 times already. I don't need more of that."
594
01:33:54.464 --> 01:33:58.264
How can you create something unique in your freebie that stands out to readers?
595
01:33:58.324 --> 01:34:08.203
How can you put them first and really bend the rules of what a freebie even should be so that your magnet's a no-brainer for them to pick up? They're so curious. They have to see what it's all about.
596
01:34:08.314 --> 01:34:17.643
This is a key superpower, and you'll see if we layer the freebie superpower onto some of the superpowers I'm about to talk about in just a bit how really wild and awesome this can become.
597
01:34:17.704 --> 01:34:23.424
So our next superpower is the paid ad system, and this is another expansion power all about scaling your readers.
598
01:34:24.024 --> 01:34:36.144
And this is just a simple and effective way to test, run, and scale paid ads across every major social platform. It doesn't have to be scary. You don't need a $1,000 course or thousands of dollars to do it.
599
01:34:36.184 --> 01:34:48.114
You just need a simple way to get started. Following are the key terms and steps you'll need to get started and eventually succeed on nearly every paid advertising platform. The key concepts of paid ads.
600
01:34:48.484 --> 01:35:02.524
First is CPM or cost per mille. It's how much it costs on average for 1,000 impressions on your ad. The lower the CPM, the more relevant your ad is to your readers. So if you have a high CPM, test new images and copy.
601
01:35:03.304 --> 01:35:13.293
Then there's CTR or click-through rate. It's what percent of people click on the ad. If you're running a traffic ad, then the platform will optimize for clicks. Budget. This is the money you allocate to be spent on ads.
602
01:35:13.604 --> 01:35:21.444
Start with a small amount you can afford to lose. Then ROAS. This is how much revenue you make per ad dollar spent.
603
01:35:22.004 --> 01:35:32.394
It's tough to get an exact number here, but pixels help to help you track who buys your product after seeing an ad over a set period of time. Now, there's four steps to successful ads.
604
01:35:33.064 --> 01:35:41.404
Step number one is choose one platform to start on. Most likely, it will be meta ads. Number two is create many variations of copy and images for your ads.
605
01:35:41.824 --> 01:35:51.344
Use the Facebook Ad Library to see what ads other authors are using. Number three is go live with your first campaign. You don't need to have specific targeting.
606
01:35:51.784 --> 01:36:04.924
Let the AI of each ad platform find the best audience for you based on the content. Make sure your ad aligns with your story. Step number four is iterate and increase the budget. Be patient.
607
01:36:04.964 --> 01:36:14.504
Your budget will get allocated to the best performing ads. No need to turn any ads off. Instead, work to create even better ads utilizing data on what is working.
608
01:36:14.844 --> 01:36:23.424
So first, ads are a huge, juicy topic, and I think a lot of us can get overwhelmed and not wanna dive into ads. We're like, "I don't have 20 hours to learn about it."
609
01:36:24.264 --> 01:36:31.084
I'm not gonna lie to you and say that this card's giving you all the information you need about ads to be successful. What I am gonna tell you is it's enough to get started.
610
01:36:31.144 --> 01:36:35.764
It's enough to play around on those dashboards. It's enough to fool around with creating an ad yourself.
611
01:36:35.784 --> 01:36:45.644
And as long as you are spending money that you can afford to lose, start small, five, $10 budget a day, and only do it if you can afford it. If you can't, then ads can be something you might wanna approach later.
612
01:36:46.284 --> 01:36:49.124
There's many superpowers to utilize. You don't have to utilize this one right now.
613
01:36:49.774 --> 01:37:03.804
But with all of this said, I really love when you can take a story that's already reached story market fit, create content about it, and post it organically on social media, see if that gets traction, and then use that content after it already gets you sales to run paid ads.
614
01:37:03.864 --> 01:37:13.664
That way you're, like, using the money you've already made from that content to fund ads against that content and then get your testing that way. So that's really how I like to do it.
615
01:37:14.324 --> 01:37:16.084
I think we can sometimes overcomplicate ads.
616
01:37:16.684 --> 01:37:24.924
And to be candid with you, I know many seven-figure authors running ads, spending hundreds of thousands of dollars a year who they're checking their ads dashboard every once in a while.
617
01:37:25.004 --> 01:37:32.414
Like, every couple days they'll look at it, they'll glance it, they'll make sure it's okay.They might spend a couple hours a week max maintaining it. Sometimes it's less.
618
01:37:32.454 --> 01:37:35.414
On a good week, they might spend twenty minutes just checking up on things.
619
01:37:35.494 --> 01:37:44.614
So I don't wanna make it sound like it's easy to run ads, but it's also not impossible, and a lot of it's just literally finding out what is the winning copy and images that work for you.
620
01:37:44.934 --> 01:37:54.074
And luckily, you can test those same winning copy and images and videos on social media for free and see if it starts to get you the correct readers, and obviously ads will amplify their impact.
621
01:37:54.134 --> 01:37:58.354
So again, that's just how I think about approaching this. Don't spend money you don't have.
622
01:37:58.834 --> 01:38:04.634
But if you do wanna get into ads, don't be intimidated and think you need thousands of dollars to start or hundreds of hours of course knowledge.
623
01:38:05.214 --> 01:38:08.554
You can get started with just this card, and that's why this superpower is here to help you.
624
01:38:09.014 --> 01:38:21.454
Now, next is the infinite reader loop, and essentially what this is, it's a marketing strategy that allows you to make a profit on your ad costs immediately, allowing you to advertise and grow your mailing list with no money out of pocket.
625
01:38:21.464 --> 01:38:29.194
This is the holy grail of book marketing. You get to scale your advertising spend as high as it can profitably without spending any money or very little out of pocket.
626
01:38:29.734 --> 01:38:40.714
This is the power of liquidating your ad cost up front with the right upsells to readers. Now, make your infinite reader loop. This is an advanced tactic for stories with story-market fit.
627
01:38:41.394 --> 01:38:49.194
The goal is not to pay out of pocket for ads. This means putting our advertising costs on a credit card and paying it off at the end of the month so there's no interest.
628
01:38:49.854 --> 01:38:59.094
I know for a lot of folks that can sound wild, that can sound like a ton of risk, and I totally get it. So if that's you and this stresses you out, you do not have to utilize this superpower.
629
01:38:59.594 --> 01:39:08.134
But some of you listening to this are gonna be feeling a light bulb go off and be like, "Dots are being connected here that I've never heard connected before."
630
01:39:08.174 --> 01:39:12.774
And some of you may have heard this concept elsewhere, which in that case, welcome to some fun little review.
631
01:39:13.394 --> 01:39:23.234
What we wanna do is before the date our credit card payment's due, we want to profit from the rest of our reader loop, hence paying no money out of pocket.
632
01:39:23.274 --> 01:39:29.054
Essentially, let's say you start your ads April first and your credit card bill is due May fifteenth.
633
01:39:29.094 --> 01:39:41.694
Your goal then is on whatever spend you have on that credit card bill, whatever ad spend, you're making back the money you've spent before it's due on the credit card. That way you're not paying off any interest, right?
634
01:39:41.734 --> 01:39:43.094
You have no interest payment.
635
01:39:43.154 --> 01:39:51.514
Your credit score actually goes up because you're making your payments on time, and you're able to even collect points that could be used for airlines, miles, all these types of things, all these benefits.
636
01:39:52.014 --> 01:40:02.874
It's, again, a great thing, but it comes with risk until we prove our reader loop, so please don't spend money too quickly and don't spend any money that you initially can't lose.
637
01:40:02.954 --> 01:40:13.254
Because if your reader loop doesn't make any money back, then you're just delaying your ad payment for forty-five days. But again, if we can get your reader loop working, y- this is incredible.
638
01:40:13.294 --> 01:40:18.214
Then this is a great marketing strategy. Now, you might be asking, like, what does a reader loop entail?
639
01:40:18.554 --> 01:40:26.314
And first, you just wanna create a freebie you will give away in exchange for reader emails and then an upsell you will share with readers right after that freebie.
640
01:40:26.394 --> 01:40:38.034
Essentially, they'll enter their email, in the success page they'll be redirected to a new URL, could be a page on your existing website, and your goal is to upsell them to something connected to your freebie.
641
01:40:38.564 --> 01:40:43.134
That way readers convert at a higher rate and lead to more profit.
642
01:40:43.214 --> 01:40:53.714
Huge note is that you must be selling direct to readers using a platform like Shopify for this strategy to work so that you receive income from your upsell before your credit card payment is due.
643
01:40:53.814 --> 01:41:04.814
Amazon holds your money for sixty days, so even if you make money on day one on Amazon, they're gonna pay you back after your credit card payment's due, and then you'll get interest, your credit score will go down, and that's just a terrible idea.
644
01:41:04.854 --> 01:41:12.894
So you have to be selling direct on typically your own website using something like Shopify where you're able to actually capture that value.
645
01:41:12.934 --> 01:41:17.923
Using something where you're actually able to capture that payment and get paid up front well before your credit card payment's due.
646
01:41:17.954 --> 01:41:24.834
So some key examples of reader loops are a free book one in series with an upsell to a series bundle. This could be digital or audio.
647
01:41:25.214 --> 01:41:33.024
You could also do a free e-book with an upsell to an audio or a physical book, and that's especially great for authors who are just getting started, might not have a ton of books.
648
01:41:33.574 --> 01:41:39.134
Mind you, the higher priced your upsell can be, the more wiggle room you're gonna have in your ad cost, right?
649
01:41:39.234 --> 01:42:01.954
So if you're spending, let's say thirty, forty cents to acquire an email, if let's say three percent convert to your offer, your upsell, then all of a sudden to break even if your getting emails, we'll go at forty cents, all of a sudden you need to make twelve dollars, whatever upsell you're selling, in order to actually break even on this funnel and get those emails effectively for free.
650
01:42:02.454 --> 01:42:10.954
And then you could grow your list and sell them products later down the road, and that list will keep making you money, and you basically can grow your list with no money out of pocket. That's not impossible, mind you.
651
01:42:10.994 --> 01:42:18.914
That's not impossible. But it's just something to think about. So as your pricing changes, you wanna map out what your conversion's gonna look like.
652
01:42:18.954 --> 01:42:30.554
And luckily, as part of the bonuses for Author Marketing Superpowers, you can get the physical deck plus a bunch of digital bonuses that allow you to build your own reader loop builder.
653
01:42:30.614 --> 01:42:44.894
So that calculator you can get, it's available linked in the episode notes somewhere. And this next superpower is called social hacking. This is another expansion power all about scaling your readers.
654
01:42:44.954 --> 01:42:54.274
So you can tap into audiences much larger than your own by capitalizing on bestselling stories and trending topics in your marketing.
655
01:42:54.334 --> 01:43:01.744
You can reach more readers faster and cheaper by sharing content about things they are already talking about.
656
01:43:01.774 --> 01:43:12.214
You might not be able to get Brandon Sanderson to post about your next book, but you can still reach his fans with your message. Here are three ways to social hack your story.
657
01:43:12.294 --> 01:43:25.294
First is create content featuring bestselling authors and stories your readers love. Want to reach readers who love cozy mysteries? Then create a video, blog, or post featuring the top ten cozy mysteries.
658
01:43:25.914 --> 01:43:35.494
Want to reach the readers of a specific author? Then share that your story is a great fit for their fans in your advertising or create a review or hot take on one of their bestselling books.
659
01:43:35.734 --> 01:43:46.084
Just make sure to be respectful here as always.Strategy number two is create content about trending tropes and topics related to your story. See a movie or news topic trending?
660
01:43:46.514 --> 01:43:59.504
Create a video about it and tie it back to your book. Please be tasteful here, and don't try to make light of tragedies. And strategy number three is get people you care about talking about your stories by wowing them.
661
01:43:59.574 --> 01:44:07.814
Send an incredible gift package of your book to an influencer so they can open it online. Send someone a super personalized creative email to introduce yourself.
662
01:44:07.824 --> 01:44:16.274
An example of this is Inner Excellence by Jim Murphy being read on the sidelines by a player during the NFL playoffs. And mind you, this was not intentional.
663
01:44:16.314 --> 01:44:26.594
It wasn't necessarily social hacking because it wasn't deliberate, but it shows the power of what happens when you can combine your story with some cultural event and really draw a lot of attention to it.
664
01:44:26.654 --> 01:44:32.574
Now, one thing I want to be really careful about is you don't want to necessarily take social hacking too far.
665
01:44:32.714 --> 01:44:42.604
I've been known to go pretty far with it, and it's worked out for me, so I want to share this story as a inspiration to you, but maybe don't deliberately follow my s- said steps.
666
01:44:42.634 --> 01:44:44.694
I'm not necessarily recommending that, although it has worked for me.
667
01:44:44.814 --> 01:44:57.534
When I was back in my YouTube days, I literally bought a bus, road tripped the country with my roommate, and dropped out of Harvard for a while, my mom was unhappy, to create live streams of my life playing manhunt and scavenger hunt in different US cities.
668
01:44:57.774 --> 01:44:58.444
Kind of unhinged.
669
01:44:58.474 --> 01:45:11.214
We actually managed to make a decent living doing that for a while, and through that whole process, I ended up being obsessed with social hacking and connecting with top creators and getting them featured in my videos s- 'cause that made for a good title and thumbnail.
670
01:45:11.514 --> 01:45:16.334
So I did some wild things. I ended up ordering a keg, and I was not 21 at this time. I was literally 19.
671
01:45:16.634 --> 01:45:26.774
So I had to get some random guy who lived in our Airbnb, he was in another room in it, he went to the store with us. We got a keg, and we went to the Sway Boys house. We're these famous TikTokers.
672
01:45:27.194 --> 01:45:34.474
Rolled up, did not even know them. Showed up outside, and basically we're like, "We have a keg for you." And they were like, "Yeah, this is amazing, man." Let us inside. It was hilarious.
673
01:45:35.054 --> 01:45:36.934
Ended up kayaking to Airx Island.
674
01:45:36.974 --> 01:45:49.514
He's a rather large YouTuber, and I gave him a cake when he was doing his one million subscriber live stream celebration and asked him for an internship, and it worked out, and I ended up being featured in a video with him that got nearly 20 million views.
675
01:45:49.694 --> 01:45:58.374
So obviously, my social hacking is extreme. I can't recommend it at all. But take what I'm saying as inspiration because there's some wild things.
676
01:45:58.434 --> 01:46:07.254
And likewise, I also featured on the Author Sidekick newsletter essentially someone who created a video of making special edition books for Brandon Sanderson.
677
01:46:07.274 --> 01:46:14.154
It was, like, these incredible, beautiful custom special editions, and she ended up getting over a million views on that video. A lot of them Brandon Sanderson readers.
678
01:46:14.654 --> 01:46:23.274
Imagine, you know, having a fantasy book and being able to build your audience, your awareness by a million plus people. Huge. Amazing stuff.
679
01:46:23.754 --> 01:46:29.414
Okay, so now let's go on to our last expansion power, all about scaling your readers, called short-form video system.
680
01:46:29.454 --> 01:46:39.934
And this is a step-by-step process to help you plan the production of videos that will make your books go viral on social media. You no longer need a camera or editing team to make videos on the internet.
681
01:46:40.614 --> 01:46:48.514
Just your phone and CapCut, which is a free app, and you can create videos that reach millions across Instagram Reels, YouTube Shorts, and TikTok.
682
01:46:48.594 --> 01:46:56.444
How do we know what should be in our short, usually under 60 second, videos? Luckily, we have the short form video system. First, divide your video into segments.
683
01:46:56.774 --> 01:47:10.694
A video can have as many segments as you want, but generally, each video has three segments: the hook, what grabs readers into the video; the value, the core of the video, whether it's informational, comedic, or narrative; the cliffhanger, a surprise at the end of the video that makes a viewer want to re-watch it.
684
01:47:11.574 --> 01:47:24.754
Then, for each segment of video, plan out your script, what will be said by the narrator or any characters in the video, your sound, your music or sound effects, and use trending sounds because that's a great way to engage people faster.
685
01:47:24.774 --> 01:47:31.974
And then your shot. This is, like, what the visual will be, who or what's in it. And then any on-screen text. Will there be any text elements on screen, and if so, what?
686
01:47:32.734 --> 01:47:42.074
Some notes is with writing books, you don't need to follow this rigid of a structure. The goal is that you can use this structure to make it an entertaining experience for your target readership.
687
01:47:42.794 --> 01:47:51.914
If you want another bonus, it's a short form video system template. You can get that by grabbing the physical deck. It's a bonus you get along with the physical deck. So you can check that out.
688
01:47:51.974 --> 01:47:57.914
That'll also be linked in the description here. And I love creating short form videos.
689
01:47:58.114 --> 01:48:08.274
I think there's so much opportunity for authors to use a lot of other superpowers here, whether it be reader napping, story spy, et cetera, and applying it to content and trying to see what content's trending well.
690
01:48:08.294 --> 01:48:14.094
What are you able to do to be able to actually get in front of more people? And then you can amplify all that through paid ads. Ah.
691
01:48:14.134 --> 01:48:17.714
We're starting to see at this stage the superpowers, all this stuff come together, and it's really exciting.
692
01:48:17.814 --> 01:48:24.274
And, and with that, we're gonna move on to our last category of powers, which is command powers, all about scaling your income.
693
01:48:24.294 --> 01:48:33.914
And our first command power is reader nurturing, which is continuously earning the trust and attention of your readers is what will grow your forever readers, loyal customers of your publishing business.
694
01:48:34.514 --> 01:48:38.634
To nurture a positive relationship with your readers, you do not need to communicate with each one individually.
695
01:48:39.174 --> 01:48:50.794
In fact, the best way to nurture your readers is to surprise and delight them while continuing to deliver on your brand promise. Now, there's three steps to forever readers. Consistently delivering on your brand promise.
696
01:48:50.834 --> 01:48:57.314
Your brand promise is the payoff readers get from your stories and the reason they enjoy your books. For every author, this varies.
697
01:48:57.394 --> 01:49:08.974
However, when you know who your readers are and what they want, your core job is to remain true to those desires. Number two is provide surprises to your readers. Surprises are one of the best ways to foster loyalty.
698
01:49:09.354 --> 01:49:14.594
You don't need constant surprises. Instead, think of one to two extra things you can do for your readers each year.
699
01:49:15.074 --> 01:49:23.874
An example is setting up an automation that asks readers for their birthday and delivers them a surprise short story on the day. Number three is do what others won't.
700
01:49:23.914 --> 01:49:32.054
People want to feel cared for even if they only know you by your pen name and you've never shown your face. Be willing to go the extra mile to serve your readers.
701
01:49:32.784 --> 01:49:42.866
An example here is doing fan pricing for new releases where you discount them for one day for fans who can't afford the normal price.Another example is adding ways for fans to personalize their stories.
702
01:49:43.286 --> 01:49:54.226
Think special editions where the names of characters in the book and more can be customized. And this is all made possible through Lulu's print API, which is a print-on-demand company. Really cool stuff.
703
01:49:54.286 --> 01:50:06.246
There's really endless options here. Just get creative and put your readers first. Now, our next superpower is the reader revenue models. This is another command power all about how to scale your income.
704
01:50:06.346 --> 01:50:16.386
These are the core ways your publishing business makes money. How do readers pay you, and for what? There's Kindle Unlimited. There's plain old selling e-books and audiobooks.
705
01:50:16.926 --> 01:50:28.126
These are wonderful, but I want to expand your mind. What other ways can you share stories and experiences with readers? In general, more immersion into your stories means more revenue.
706
01:50:28.686 --> 01:50:34.826
For example, think about how much we pay for physical books or games compared to e-books.
707
01:50:35.366 --> 01:50:43.606
Probably pay more for games and physical books compared to e-books, and that's because these media formats tend to lend themselves to more immersion. They don't have to, but they tend to.
708
01:50:43.646 --> 01:50:57.286
Now, here's how you can immerse your readers and profit. There are infinite possibilities, but the goal is simple. Sell the most expensive thing you can. Following are some examples of different reader revenue models.
709
01:50:57.946 --> 01:51:05.836
Money maker number one is physical books. With print-on-demand services, you can sell print books without ever touching them.
710
01:51:05.886 --> 01:51:18.366
If you made your digital content super accessible, how would you incentivize people to buy the physical book? An example is Tillie Walden's digital comic on a Sunbeam is available for free on her website.
711
01:51:18.826 --> 01:51:24.066
Once people read it, they want the physical copy. Money maker number two is other story formats.
712
01:51:24.826 --> 01:51:32.146
Story letters such as Dooms for Guts scare mail, interactive stories using Twine, serialized fiction podcasts like The Magnus Archives.
713
01:51:32.666 --> 01:51:42.966
You can sell early access to these stories, access to future stories on subscription, or stories in unique format at a premium. Money maker number three is products and services.
714
01:51:43.006 --> 01:51:51.356
Book boxes filled with goodies your readers will enjoy, like Willow Winters does, or chatbots where your readers can interact with your characters, like on the Character.ai platform.
715
01:51:52.006 --> 01:51:59.686
If you're interested in exploring all of this more deeply, you can join the waitlist for the next Beyond the Book Accelerator at beyondthebookacademy.com.
716
01:52:00.126 --> 01:52:12.526
It opens up twice a year, and it's an incredible program that walks you through how to discover who your audience is, be able to build a world around them of different products and unique ways to tell stories and market to them.
717
01:52:12.946 --> 01:52:19.666
And then it actually has you take it into action with group coaching and tons of feedback to help you along the way.
718
01:52:19.786 --> 01:52:30.246
It's an incredible one of a kind program that's really going to change how you think about publishing and help you get to the next level. So you could find that at beyondthebookacademy.com. Your writer circle.
719
01:52:30.486 --> 01:52:37.976
This is another command power all about helping you scale your income. And your close writer friends will be one of the most valuable assets in your career.
720
01:52:38.706 --> 01:52:49.846
Knowledge transfer is when we share our experiences and knowledge with others. A small group of writers diligently sharing learnings back and forth can lead to you growing exponentially faster.
721
01:52:49.886 --> 01:53:00.566
Building your writer circle is how you can meet and forge incredible relationships with other writers that may just change your life. Now, here's the steps to building your writer circle.
722
01:53:00.586 --> 01:53:08.306
First is join writing communities online or in your local city. Most writing communities are free to join, and I host free meetups at storysupper.com.
723
01:53:08.706 --> 01:53:16.586
I travel a lot, and when I travel and go to a new city, I try and host a story supper. Second step is once you meet writers and start to connect, create a small group chat together.
724
01:53:16.926 --> 01:53:25.966
Online communities are great, but are often not an intimate enough forum. You want a space where people feel comfortable sharing their ramblings, research, wins, and struggles.
725
01:53:26.006 --> 01:53:33.886
Now, step number three is to lean in and help people in your circle. Provide feedback on their ideas and stories. Share your own learnings with everyone and ask questions when you need help.
726
01:53:34.446 --> 01:53:45.886
Odds are other people are in the same position as you. And then number four is set a regular time to meet and connect. This can be a voice call, video call, or just over chat asynchronously.
727
01:53:45.906 --> 01:53:55.326
What's important is sharing your goals with others, holding each other accountable, and even engaging in writing sprints together. And now we'll move on to our next superpower.
728
01:53:55.986 --> 01:54:04.986
Now, the super sidekick is another command power all about scaling your income. Your biggest allies are the people you work with to make your publishing business possible.
729
01:54:05.406 --> 01:54:15.006
Whether it's an e-book retailer, a social media app, a book printer, an editor, or a cover designer, the people behind the magic that makes your books possible can help you a ton.
730
01:54:15.446 --> 01:54:27.165
The key is building long-term relationships with the right people, unleashing your super sidekick. Here are ways you can build partnerships with key players in the industry that can benefit you over the long run.
731
01:54:27.226 --> 01:54:33.086
First is build relationships with platforms to increase your chances of participating in special promotions.
732
01:54:33.166 --> 01:54:40.866
Either at conferences, through email, or through author friends, you can build strong relationships with the people behind the platforms you publish on.
733
01:54:41.386 --> 01:54:54.906
Number two is to build relationships with service providers so you can get early access to new features and preferred terms. Treat your editors, cover designers, and other service providers with kindness. Pay on time.
734
01:54:54.946 --> 01:55:04.966
They will pay you back by doing what they can to work around your schedule to get your edit in or finish up a cover revision. Build relationships with artists and other creatives.
735
01:55:05.446 --> 01:55:17.946
To turn your story into the mediums, you will need to work with other people. Your mom may not be a best-selling author, but artificial nepotism is one of the most powerful forces in the universe. Use it wisely.
736
01:55:18.026 --> 01:55:27.406
Anyone can become an insider. So our next superpower is merchant of record, or MOR. This is another command power all about scaling your income.
737
01:55:27.446 --> 01:55:34.206
The MOR is the business responsible for processing payments and takes on the legal liability of the transaction.
738
01:55:34.246 --> 01:55:45.910
When building your empire, you will likely at some point sell products directly to your readers through your website.As the MOR, you capture all customer information, including credit cards and emails.
739
01:55:45.970 --> 01:56:01.330
With that comes the responsibility to collect, remit, and file sales tax. This sounds scary, but it's a lot simpler than you think. How sales tax works for authors. Disclaimer, I am not a CPA or financial advisor.
740
01:56:01.370 --> 01:56:08.150
The following is not tax advice. You should consult your licensed tax advisor with any specific questions.
741
01:56:08.810 --> 01:56:16.950
Sales tax and VAT are fees levied by state and country governments based on where the customers of your product are.
742
01:56:16.990 --> 01:56:26.330
This means you can live in Australia but be subject to sales tax in the US state of Georgia if you have customers there. Yikes. But there's good news.
743
01:56:27.010 --> 01:56:39.970
You only have to pay sales tax and VAT when you cross economic nexus in a specific region. Economic nexus is when you pass a threshold of purchases in a region, in other words, number of transactions or total revenue.
744
01:56:40.550 --> 01:56:46.069
Stripe Tax, built into the payment processor Stripe, will help you monitor sales tax and VAT obligations for free.
745
01:56:46.910 --> 01:56:56.260
If you hit nexus, you'll pay a small fee to collect these taxes from customers at checkout, and then you'll have to register, remit, and file with local tax authorities.
746
01:56:57.050 --> 01:57:05.830
For most states, economic nexus requires hundreds of individual customers or one hundred thousand dollars plus in annual revenue from customers in that state.
747
01:57:06.370 --> 01:57:12.680
So you likely won't have to worry about this for a while, and when you do, you should be able to afford a CPA to help you.
748
01:57:12.730 --> 01:57:22.130
Now, with that said, there's even better news, which is for a lot of authors, you can still sell direct and get the emails of your readers without actually having to be the merchant of record.
749
01:57:22.590 --> 01:57:25.470
Software platforms are constantly evolving, and so are payment systems.
750
01:57:25.670 --> 01:57:38.790
So I just encourage you to do your due diligence when you're deciding between different platforms to use, whether that be Shopify or other places, and see how their payment processor's set up and if they're gonna be the merchant of record or if you are.
751
01:57:38.830 --> 01:57:48.449
That's really crucial because, again, the merchant of record's actually liable for sales tax and VAT, and if the platform or another service provider is the merchant of record, then you don't need to worry about this at all.
752
01:57:48.510 --> 01:57:50.150
So it's very interesting.
753
01:57:50.229 --> 01:58:05.390
I'm curious to see how this landscape evolves, but the good news is that now that you know about the merchant of record, you're able to utilize this superpower if you want to, and if not, this knowledge will help you be able to navigate selling direct in a different way.
754
01:58:05.530 --> 01:58:11.650
Next up is our go global superpower. This is another command power all about scaling your income.
755
01:58:11.770 --> 01:58:17.440
Making your stories and brand accessible to readers in different languages is a key way to expand your audience and income.
756
01:58:18.130 --> 01:58:25.040
I've hired dozens of localization professionals to work for Amazon Prime's most localized show ever, Beast Games.
757
01:58:25.810 --> 01:58:33.230
The power of great localization is immense, but it requires understanding a few core principles to do it right.
758
01:58:33.730 --> 01:58:47.470
And seriously, this was really the summary of the key things I learned about being able to translate a very complicated show and localize a very complicated show into dozens of languages that would reach tens of millions of viewers worldwide.
759
01:58:47.530 --> 01:58:58.330
So I think these insights should be able to help you, whether you're trying to translate audio, e-books, comics, anything you're trying to do. These are the three principles of localization I would keep in mind.
760
01:58:58.390 --> 01:59:16.410
So first is that translation is simply taking one piece of content and making it in another language, whereas localization is the process of making your story, ad copy, and packaging relevant to specific cultures, including using specific language references and settings that resonate with readers.
761
01:59:16.940 --> 01:59:27.450
Always aim not to simply just translate but localize. Now, data-driven expansion. Don't FOMO into a new language just because you've seen an author is crushing it.
762
01:59:27.950 --> 01:59:35.580
Study the bestseller charts on Amazon in specific regional markets and see if your type of book does well there. Story spy, remember that superpower?
763
01:59:36.130 --> 01:59:41.610
Likewise, you wanna make sure your story has story-market fit before you're expanding and taking that IP into new languages.
764
01:59:41.650 --> 01:59:46.110
If it hasn't worked well in an English market, I wouldn't take the bet that it would work well in a French market.
765
01:59:46.260 --> 01:59:57.800
There's outliers and cases where that happens, but I would focus on the English market or wherever you are natively writing books first and then look to expand after you gain traction in your existing market.
766
01:59:58.410 --> 02:00:07.090
Now, quality assurance is essential. This is the most important part of the process. With automated technologies and software, the cost of localizing your story has decreased dramatically.
767
02:00:07.490 --> 02:00:17.159
With that said, regardless of the translation route you take, quality assurance or QA is more important than ever, especially for the localization side of things.
768
02:00:17.630 --> 02:00:25.590
Great QA requires someone skilled in both the source language and ideally is a native speaker of the target language.
769
02:00:25.630 --> 02:00:35.970
Interview multiple people, get references from fellow authors, and make sure you are working with the best long-term partner who understands not just the language but the conventions of your genre.
770
02:00:36.530 --> 02:00:43.610
And if y'all follow Author Sidekick, I'll definitely be doing a whole essay there at some point on actually how to localize.
771
02:00:43.670 --> 02:00:57.110
Depending on when you're listening to this, that essay may already be live, and you'll be able to find it on Author Sidekick, and if not, then it'll be coming in the near future, a detailed essay on localization service providers for authors.
772
02:00:57.440 --> 02:01:12.250
The landscape's evolving so quickly, and I don't wanna put something in a book that's gonna be outdated in a couple months, so just know that I'm collecting all those resources somewhere else and putting it so that you all know how to approach localization when the time comes in terms of who exactly to work with, what software to use, et cetera.
773
02:01:13.130 --> 02:01:18.140
Our next superpower is the three types of reader community. This is another command power all about scaling your income.
774
02:01:18.870 --> 02:01:28.180
Now, creating a reader community allows people to come together around shared interests, hobbies, and goals. Community is the space you own in someone's mind and bringing people together around that.
775
02:01:28.180 --> 02:01:36.630
There are tons of tools to build a community. However, what everyone misses is that community can be your best marketing. You just have to design it. Here are the three types of reader communities.
776
02:01:37.530 --> 02:01:41.880
Who your community is designed for is the key factor that determines your community's ceiling.
777
02:01:42.440 --> 02:01:50.078
The first type of reader community is a community for your stories.This has the lowest ceiling and is inherently limited by people who are already interested in your stories.
778
02:01:50.558 --> 02:01:57.438
It's great for nurturing existing fans, but not new ones. The second kind of reader community is a community for passion.
779
02:01:57.458 --> 02:02:06.418
This has a high ceiling and caters to people who are interested in your overall genre, sub-genre, or different type of interest group that's mentioned in your stories.
780
02:02:07.058 --> 02:02:18.538
The key to success here is what kind of conversations you can create a space for that don't currently have a home. An example here is the Smut Hood creating a space for romance readers to talk about taboo books.
781
02:02:18.598 --> 02:02:28.078
Over 200,000 members in there. Or Midnight Monster Club creating a space for people to talk about horror products such as movies, books, and other horror product recommendations.
782
02:02:28.498 --> 02:02:34.918
That has nearly 20,000 members and has only been around for a couple months. And the last type of community is a community for learning.
783
02:02:35.118 --> 02:02:45.158
Now, this also has a high ceiling and caters to people who want to learn about a topic. For nonfiction authors, this is ideal. For fiction authors, depending on your sub-genre, this can be a great fit, too.
784
02:02:45.218 --> 02:02:54.798
Think prepper community or a witchcraft community about making potions. Our next superpower is fanatic builder. This is another command power all about scaling your income.
785
02:02:54.838 --> 02:03:07.618
Now, fanaticism is the excessive belief or passion in a brand, story, or person. This simple three-step process helps you turn casual readers into diehard fans. The publishing industry is ruled by super fans.
786
02:03:07.678 --> 02:03:19.838
For authors, the majority of your profit comes from readers who are repeat buyers of your books. With true fanatics, the opportunities extend beyond books to sell them merch, special editions, and other fan experiences.
787
02:03:20.518 --> 02:03:30.198
Here are the three steps to fanaticism. You can nurture fanatic readers through your newsletter, on social media, or even inside your books by ingraining the following three things into your reader experience.
788
02:03:30.858 --> 02:03:39.808
First is shared purpose. What do people come to your stories for? Is there a consistent emotional journey you take your readers on? Is there a specific passion or background in life your readers share?
789
02:03:40.338 --> 02:03:49.558
Use this to unite your readers. Next is shared language. What language do you use throughout your stories that your readers can identify with? Are there inside jokes, names of places and characters?
790
02:03:50.138 --> 02:04:02.598
Use this language throughout your marketing and communication with readers, and even create merchandise and other products based on it. And last step here is shared rituals. What can your fans come together to do?
791
02:04:03.058 --> 02:04:13.158
Does a character in your story love tea or a specific food? Integrate rituals your characters have in your stories and encourage your readers to engage in the same rituals together.
792
02:04:13.218 --> 02:04:21.638
I have this amazing author friend, EJ Frost. She's one of the smartest, most brilliant authors I've met, and she had this group of super fans she had in this private call.
793
02:04:21.678 --> 02:04:26.018
It would happen at least once a month, sometimes more often, and they would get together.
794
02:04:26.058 --> 02:04:33.018
She had this special group of super fans that would get together in these video calls, and they would all have their own unique roles, and she wrote kinky romances.
795
02:04:33.098 --> 02:04:40.318
They all had this, like, kinky club where they'd get together, drink wine, and, and talk about the books, but they were all role-playing to a certain extent.
796
02:04:40.338 --> 02:04:49.038
And I just viscerally remember that one of her readers had this gavel, and they would hit it to control order in the meeting, make sure that things were staying on track.
797
02:04:49.118 --> 02:05:02.478
All these readers, in her case, were all recently divorced, single, in their mid-40s to mid-50s, and just trying to navigate life, so they all came together as friends around these stories, and it was really awesome.
798
02:05:02.488 --> 02:05:10.298
Showing up all the time. They were spending hundreds of dollars a year with EJ across all of her different books and products. It was a great thing for her.
799
02:05:10.338 --> 02:05:19.138
It was great for her fans, and it really supported her business. You can think about how you wanna go about building your fanatic base of fans. It doesn't have to look like video calls at all.
800
02:05:19.778 --> 02:05:30.798
You don't have to involve any sort of rituals that involve readers role-playing, but you can. You can have readers play video game hangout nights together. You can do so many different things.
801
02:05:30.838 --> 02:05:34.638
It's just exciting, and frankly, people need community now more than ever.
802
02:05:34.718 --> 02:05:47.538
I'm so passionate about where community can go and how fandom can be used for good, so use this power wisely, and I'm really excited to see what you all create and how you change the lives of your readers because of this.
803
02:05:47.558 --> 02:05:55.018
And our last superpower, but maybe our most important, is audience is everything. This is our final command power all about scaling your income.
804
02:05:55.518 --> 02:06:07.618
Now, once you build trust with your readers through your stories, you can sell them anything. The entire economy is being oriented around creator-led brands, from drinks like Prime to beauty brands and clothing.
805
02:06:07.958 --> 02:06:16.798
The future of commerce is in the hands of storytellers. Let's explore how you can serve your audience in a bigger and better way than most can even imagine.
806
02:06:16.838 --> 02:06:26.518
Follow the Beyond Your Book blueprint to create a synergy map that puts your readers at the center and a world of opportunity around them. Step number one is to define your audience.
807
02:06:26.578 --> 02:06:38.678
Everything starts with your readers first. Once you narrow your niche, you can start to imagine the other companies, products, and services that solve common problems specific to the lives of your readers.
808
02:06:38.718 --> 02:06:48.718
An example is the Romance Versus the World card game by Renee Rose. It's amazing. You should check it out, and it's a great product that serves her core audience of romance readers.
809
02:06:49.378 --> 02:06:59.918
Step number two is to create your vision. Dream big here. Research other products and map out the world of possibilities and different experiences you could create. An example of this is the Walt Disney synergy map.
810
02:07:00.238 --> 02:07:10.388
It's a beautiful image of how you can build an empire around intellectual property and stories. Digital and physical cards actually have my own little image of a synergy map, so you get to see it there.
811
02:07:10.438 --> 02:07:22.638
Now, step number three is to build your reader-first journey. Create your first Beyond the Book experience using one of the product or content ideas. Launch and iterate using all the superpowers you've learned here.
812
02:07:23.438 --> 02:07:29.678
If you want to learn more about going beyond the book, you can listen to my podcast at authorsidekick.com/podcast.
813
02:07:30.038 --> 02:07:37.618
Most weeks, I release a free episode, either me sharing insights or interviewing someone amazing in the industry who's doing incredible things going beyond the book.
814
02:07:37.638 --> 02:07:42.678
And you can also join the waitlist for the next Beyond the Book Accelerator at beyondthebookacademy.com.
815
02:07:42.858 --> 02:07:52.994
It only opens twice a year and gives you amazing guidance, group coaching, and tons of resources to help you turn your stories into an empire.And that's it, the author marketing superpowers.
816
02:07:53.054 --> 02:08:03.834
There's a lot in here, and now that you have not only the audiobook but the e-book and the digital deck that you'll be able to access, you have a bunch of different resources here completely for free.
817
02:08:04.074 --> 02:08:14.414
And you can also go to authordex.com. It's in level up your side deck. And if you don't have the physical deck already or all the other awesome digital bonuses, you can get it there. They're amazing.
818
02:08:15.174 --> 02:08:22.314
Likewise, you can go to authorsidekick.com, enjoy my newsletter completely for free, where I help you grow your revenue and readership by putting your readers first.
819
02:08:22.974 --> 02:08:36.104
And lastly, Readermeter is an incredible platform that helps you see where readers stop turning the page in your stories, so you can write better books and make more money. Go to readermeter.io to join the waitlist.
820
02:08:36.214 --> 02:08:45.674
It'll be releasing later in twenty twenty-five. I'm really excited for it. It's gonna be a super fun product, and I think can really change the game for a lot of you telling stories.
821
02:08:45.734 --> 02:08:58.094
Now, instead of just saying goodbye, I just wanna share my thank you for getting to this point. There's a lot here, and y- you are welcome to reach out to me with questions anytime at hello@authorsidekick.com.
822
02:08:58.114 --> 02:09:07.424
That's my email. I love hearing from y'all. I love trying to help you any way I can. If you have new ideas, new superpowers you think I should add, let me know. Who knows?
823
02:09:07.514 --> 02:09:15.993
I might do more superpowers in the future, maybe another deck for planning. Who knows? If you have other decks you'd like me to create, let me know. I'm open to doing it.
824
02:09:16.514 --> 02:09:24.754
I don't wanna create too much, but if there's demand and y'all think there would be another deck that's helpful to you in your life, you let me know. And I've been doing this for a long time.
825
02:09:24.794 --> 02:09:32.074
I've been in this industry now for eight years, and my dream has been to literally live in the future and create science fiction.
826
02:09:32.164 --> 02:09:44.754
And I feel like I'm being able to create science fiction for the future of publishing, where we all together get to define what this future of authorship looks like, where we get to do better for our readers, we get to innovate, and we really get to make marketing fun again.
827
02:09:44.934 --> 02:09:56.014
So I hope you had fun reading slash listening to this book. It's meant a lot to me that you've been here. I'm so excited for what's to come. The best is ahead of us in publishing.
828
02:09:56.614 --> 02:10:08.534
And if you wanna support this mission, the best way you can do this is by sharing authordex.com with any of your author friends. It's totally free for them to get this audiobook, the digital deck, and the e-book as well.
829
02:10:08.574 --> 02:10:16.814
So you're doing them a favor by sharing it with them, and you're doing me a favor because the more authors we have as part of this movement, the more amazing things I can create for y'all.
830
02:10:16.854 --> 02:10:29.193
So once again, thank you for being here. Remember, as authors, our job is not to sell books. It's to put our readers first and make their lives better. I'm so excited to see what you can do.
831
02:10:29.234 --> 02:10:41.934
My ultimate goal is to give storytellers as much power as possible. That's my job as your sidekick. I hope you get to go on and be the sidekick to helping your readers fulfill their dreams and live a better life.
832
02:10:42.354 --> 02:10:55.234
I believe in you. You are awesome. You've put in the work by just listening to this, and you should be proud of yourself and freaking pumped for everything that's to come. So thank you, my storytelling heroes.
833
02:10:55.354 --> 02:11:01.134
I'm gonna miss you, but I'll see you soon. And as always, don't forget, together we are boundless.