Episode 225 – Audible Bounties, Book Description Keywords, and Make or Break Moments

Question of the Week: If you were forced into a “make or break moment,” what would you do differently with your author business to get the money you needed in time?

What’s your do or die author strategy to get the money you need for your business? Jim tells us a little about AuthorAccelerate.com and how it can benefit authors with a big bundle of helpful services including one-on-ones. The Happy Book Reviews winner is Allen Alright. Bryan thanks our fabulous Patrons – Email Lists Made Easy for Writers and Bloggers, Sanyare: The Last Descendant, and The Ten-Year Turnaround: Transform Your Personal Finances and Achieve Financial Freedom in The Next Ten Years. The Hot Tips this week include how IngramSpark allows you to personalize your paperbacks for $1 per copy, why a writing routine is critical for author success, and what you need to know about keywords in your Amazon book description. The five stories that made the cut this week are which trademark dilemma is rocking the author world, why the Audible bounty increase may have a hidden downside, how constant care and attention to your marketing and content can add to your bottom line, how book stuffing and gaming the system is losing momentum and indie authors are finding huge success, and why giving readers something they don’t know they want can pay off BIG! Question of the Week: If you were forced into a “make or break moment,” what would you do differently with your author business to get the money you needed in time? read more

Episode 224 – Marketing to Market, Also-bought Updates, and the Golden Age of TV Adaptations

Question of the Week: If Amazon goes through with its changes to limit also-boughts, will you add more advertising to your marketing to compensate or keep on keepin’ on?

How will you adapt your advertising strategy to accommodate Amazon’s shifting policy on also-boughts? Bryan and Jim are both on hand this week and Bryan has a no-pitch webinar coming up and you get to choose the topic! Last week’s winner of the Happy Book Reviews feature is Laura Martone. Bryan thanks the awesome featured Patrons The Author’s Guide to Ebook Bundling, More Than Monsters, and A Band Director’s Guide to Everything Tuba. Three useful tips include how to effectively bend Amazon’s algorithm to you advantage, why writers underestimate the physical strain that writing takes, and what sales techniques will keep you stuck in the past with you book marketing efforts. We have an Honorable Mention news story regarding server issues for Amazon and Mailerlite. The top stories that are worth a listen this week include how a new Bookfunnel gifting feature can benefit you, why Amazon’s also-boughts could affect your ad strategy, author Galen Surluk-Ramsey’s personal success story, why collaboration and tropes in titles could be the boost you’ve been looking for, which literary writers are looking for television adaptations and why it’s so lucrative. Question of the Week: If Amazon goes through with its changes to limit also-boughts, will you add more advertising to your marketing to compensate or keep on keepin’ on? read more

Episode 223 – Author Mindset, Silly Surveys, and Expanded Distribution

Question of the Week: Aside from an income survey, what kind of survey of the author community do you feel would be the most helpful for you and why?

If you could design a survey for the author community, what information would you gather? Jim is back on the show this week and he and Bryan had a great July 4th. Bryan announced the Happy Book Reviews winner Will Brown and the guys thank their iTunes reviewers for the great feedback. Bryan thanks the wonderful Patrons Nightblade, Gone, and The Cordova Vector. The fabulous weekly tips include how to get creative about your writing time, which tips can save you tons of time during the edit, and what marketing mistakes you might be in danger of making. Honorable mention story is who got the boot at Barnes and Noble. The top five stories that matter this week include how Amazon is expanding the ebook market, what’s pushing Createspace toward obsolescence, how one author revived old books, are author surveys uncovering truths or muddying the waters, and how mindset can increase monthly sales by ten times. Question of the Week: Aside from an income survey, what kind of survey of the author community do you feel would be the most helpful for you and why? read more

Episode 222 – Renaming Awards, Building Your Backlist, and the Dome of Silence

Question of the Week: Do you think Association for Library Service to Children made the right decision to rename its award? How do we best distinguish between racist themes, characters, and authors when looking back on books from the past?

Do you think the Association for Library Service to Children made the right decision in their attempt to airbrush history? Should history be rewritten? Bryan Cohen is flying solo this week, but the sound effects king Jim Kukral will be back next week! Our fabulous featured Patrons include Slow Burn: Zero Day, The Final Arrangement, and Wanderer’s Escape. This week’s Happy Book Reviews Feature winners are Darren Sapp and Franki Kidd. Get ready for hit tips including how to use the Dome of Silence to get great feedback on your writing, why extreme calendaring is the new sport for you, and which milestones and achievements can motivate your future projects. The five news stories that deserve your attention this week are why pronouns won’t double your income, which sales strategies can help you go wider than wide, how Wattpad is becoming the launchpad for original film and television content, when is it all right to airbrush history—if ever, and how author Barry Hutchinson combined a backlist and a rapid release strategy to explode his income. Question of the Week: Do you think Association for Library Service to Children made the right decision to rename its award? How do we best distinguish between racist themes, characters, and authors when looking back on books from the past? read more