Episode 273 – Coaching, Piracy, and Tweets Gone Wrong

Have you ever used a coach or a mentor to help you get to the next level of your career? If so, did it help? If not, is it something you’d ever consider in the future?

Would you consider working with a coach to improve an aspect of your author career? Jim is excited for his Unskippable booksigning event in Las Vegas. Bryan reminds everyone to check out the new Best Page Forward podcast and fill out the submission form if you want your blurb rewritten during the live show. There are only 41 slots left in the Amazon Ads Made Easy 5-module course—grab yours today and take control of you ads. This week’s Happy Books Review Winner is Mike Stop Continues. Thank you to our featured Patrons: Sanyare: The Last Descendant, Blogging for Authors, and Awakened: Paragons Book One. The Top Tips of the week include how creating work seasons can increase productivity, why both existing fans and new readers are both important to your marketing plan, and how changing up your routine can reignite creativity. We have an Honorable Mention: How one bad Tweet poisoned the whole nest. The 5 News stories that matter most to indies this week include one more BIG reason to resist the urge to reply to bad reviews, Audible is doubling down on their subscription service for Romance, how Victoria Smith found the boost she needed to more than triple her monthly income with the assistance of a coach, why Ellie Masters considers marketing as the key to reaching 5-figure sales, and how books are being stolen from WattPad and appearing for sale on Amazon. Question of the Week: Have you ever used a coach or a mentor to help you get to the next level of your career? If so, did it help? If not, is it something you’d ever consider in the future? read more

Episode 272 – After, Amish Sci-Fi, and Viva La France

Question of the Week: How many international self-publishing success stories do you think go unreported in the U.S.? Does this make you more excited about the idea of doing translations of your books in the future?

How do you feel about translation of your books and potential international success? Bryan announces his Waitlist for June openings in the Amazon Ads Made Easy course. Jim soft-launched Unskippable and he is looking forward to digging into serious advertising to promote the title. This week’s Happy Books Review Winner is Lars Hedbor. Thank you to our Patrons – Star Flame: A Story From the Meclauks Kingdom, Planet Dead One Shot: The Briggs Boys, and The Secret Blush. The Top Tips of the week include why crowdsourcing cover design could be the wrong move, how robots can help you edit, and why it is so important to meet reader expectations with subgenres. The 5 News stories that matter most to indies this week include how to phone it in for success, why you can finally embrace the zero, how Patrick McLaughlin squeezed the most out of everyday to write his way to success, what the Amish are doing in space, and how Caroline Vermalle von Ruben hit $50k in one year without selling a single book in the U.S. Question of the Week: How many international self-publishing success stories do you think go unreported in the U.S.? Does this make you more excited about the idea of doing translations of your books in the future? read more

Episode 271 – Barnes & Noble, Research, and People Over Algorithms

Question of the Week: If you bought Barnes & Noble, what would you do with it?

If you had control over B&N, what next step do you think would be best for readers? With Bryan taking the week off, author and launch consultant Courtney Kenney dropped in to talk news and tips with Jim. Tips included writing to multiple genres, a handy tool to manage reviewers, and why you should always value people over algorithms. News stories focused on writing in the angry age of social media, the rise and potential drop of ebooks, how writing helped one veteran provide for his family, how essential research is before hitting publish, and the bidding war over Barnes & Noble. This week’s Question of the Week: If you bought Barnes & Noble, what would you do with it? read more

Episode 270 – Writing Crap, Disney World, and Amazon Publishing Turns 10

Question of the Week: How many bad books do you think it takes for a dedicated reader to give up on an author?

How many times will a reader go back to a “poisoned” well? Bryan and Jim are grateful for new listeners, and listeners who have been with them since Episode 1. Bryan is reaching the end of releasing his Amazon Ads Made Easy modules and has learned to enjoy math and use data to improve his ad spend. Jim is suffering through the final editing phase but is looking forward to purchasing Vellum and formatting his new book. This week’s Happy Books Review Winner is Hildie McQueen. Thank you to our Patrons: The Thing Speaks for Itself, Dark as the Grave, and Pirates vs. Dragons. The Top Tips of the week how to squeeze more juice out of Instagram, learn more about what readers want through podcast research, and how to stoke the fires of creativity. The 5 News stories that matter most to indies this week include which publishing scam is making a sequel, how Karl Drinkwater used his Bookbub Featured Deal to grab a #1 spot, why readers keep reading bad books, what Kyla Stone did to reach 50K in sales, and how Amazon celebrated its 10th publishing birthday. Question of the Week: How many bad books do you think it takes for a dedicated reader to give up on an author? read more