Episode 55 – Indies-Only, U.K. Earnings, and the Audio Revolution

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Succinctly working their way through the top news in the biz, Jim and Bryan discussed the latest happenings in the industry. Their trio of tips focused on recording your own audiobooks, pricing your books, and how to market on Facebook. News stories included the topics of indie-only bookstores, a series of stories on audiobooks, London Book Fair, Mark Dawson’s recent feature in Forbes, and author earnings in the U.K. This week’s Question of the Week: Would you submit your book to a self-publishing book store? Why or why not? If there was one in your area, would you consider shopping there?

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Episode 54 – Luck, Oyster, and Seven-Figure Deals

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In another succinct episode, Bryan and Jim talked tips, news, and the most pressing questions of the publishing industry. They discussed tips related to email lists, self-promotion on social media, and the new Book Report tool. News stories included Amazon’s fake review lawsuit, three recent seven-figure publishing deals for indies, the luck factor of publishing, the reasoning behind Oyster’s new online book store, and the traditionally published author survey. This week’s Question of the Week: If you were already successful in self-publishing, would you take a five-book deal for a million dollars?

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Episode 53 – Going Mobile, Author Education, and the Lab

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In our first show of year two, we introduced a new segment and still came in at under 50 minutes! Thriller author and marketing expert Mark Dawson helped us kick off “The Lab,” a new feature in which successful authors help us experiment with our own books! He’s offering a one-hour consultation giveaway through April 14th at SelfPublishingFormula.com. Jim and Bryan’s trio of tips focused on audio marketing, going mobile, and free image sites. The news stories touched upon virtual book readings, self-publishing in high school, the reader’s journey, the post-gold rush trough, and what self-published authors should focus on. This week’s Question of the Week: Is it time for self-publishers to get over self-publishing? read more

Episode 52 – Safety, Censorship, and Our One-Year Anniversary

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Jim and Bryan celebrated their one-year anniversary this week! They also awarded episode 50’s big video contest winner. In their 52nd episode, the Midwesterners discussed a trio of tips on writing in the cloud, using physical book cards, and adding bonus content to your fiction books. The news focused on digital growth, safety for book reviewers, the Clean Reader app, Joe Konrath’s EbooksAreForever library business, and the controversy over Jane Litte’s pen name. This week’s Question of the Week: What do you like and dislike about our show? What could we do better?

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Episode 51 – PubSense Summit (Featuring Joanna Penn, Porter Anderson and More)

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With Jim and Bryan at the PubSense Summit in Charleston, SC, the dynamic duo decided to get the opinions of some of the great speakers on hand. Joanna Penn (The Creative Penn), Porter Anderson (The Bookseller), Mark Lefebvre (Kobo), Cevin Bryerman (Publishers Weekly), Andra Miller (Algonquin), Shari Stauch (Where Writers Win), and Kristina Radke (NetGalley) gave Bryan their expert insights on the latest developments in self-publishing. Tips included handling one-star reviews, gaining visibility, and using Facebook ads. The news focused on a new Goodreads change, the buyer’s market vs. the reader’s market, author attitudes, the odds of self-publishing success, and the acquisition of Overdrive by Kobo’s parent company, Rakuten. This week’s Question of the Week: If you became a successful author would your attitude change? If you found success would you be corrupted?

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Episode 50 – How Bad Do You Want It?

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In their landmark 50th episode, Bryan and Jim had rants and insight, motivation and tough love, and tips and news for your listening pleasure. Listen to the show to learn how to enter their big 50th episode giveaway to win over $150 in prizes! Their trio of tips includes a better way to get ACX bounties, scrappy conference marketing tips, and why you should create courses. The news included stories on deep, philosophical novels, the reality of the writing dream, the next step in Facebook marketing, how to market a series, and five reflective lessons on the authorpreneurial life. This week’s Question of the Week: How bad do you want it?

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Episode 49, Parts 1 & 2 – Author Communities, Getting By and The Startup Mindset (Featuring Our Fans)

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This week, we decided to honor our fans by bringing on nine of our superfans to discuss the tips and news. Without them, Bryan might not have made it through his cold and sore throat! The featured guests included Crissy Moss, Alyssa Archer, Leslie Watts, Clark Chamberlain, Perry Constantine, Pete Bauer, Jacob Williams, Stacy Claflin, and Roland Denzel. The tips centered on WattPad, building an author community, and Amazon keyword mastery. The top news of the week touched upon waning ebook sales for trad pubs, the EU’s recent ruling that ebooks aren’t books, the new Author Earnings Dashboard, the getting-by attitude, and the indie startup mindset. A big thank you to all our fans who participated! This week’s Question of the Week: What are some marketing ideas you might be able to pull from other markets that could help you sell more books? read more

Episode 48 – Copyright, Ageism and Author Solutions

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Back by popular demand (with over 130 comments), Jim joined Bryan to discuss the latest book-selling news. Before they got down to business, Bryan announced the pre-order of his latest fiction book and the ongoing Spring Multi-Author Facebook Event pitch (which you can find at bryancohen.com/pitch). The trio of tips included advice on reading more, what digital tools to use, and how to publicize your old content. News included stories on an author’s DMCA battle, Amazon advertising success and failure, ageism by a former MFA teacher, and Kristine Kathryn Rusch’s thoughts on indispensability. This week’s Question of the Week: How will the latest news about Nook affect how you do business with them going forward?=&0=&
  • How to read more books every year
  • What 5 tools Jane Friedman keeps going back to
  • Why old content should be a part of your marketing strategy
  • How to deal with a DMCA copyright claim
  • What some authors are doing to make AMS ads work
  • Why authors don’t fit into the boxes of age or income
  • How to become indispensable
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Ted #4: The Light, the Dark and the Ugly (Pre-Order) read more

Episode 47 – Middlemen, BookBub Analysis, and Real Authors

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Bryan and Jim started with two big announcements. Bryan is opening up a multi-author Facebook event for April, and authors can apply at bryancohen.com/pitch. Jim and Bryan will both be on hand at the PubSense Summit in Charleston, SC in March. The traveling troubadours discussed three tips on book cover split testing, blog post topics, and mobile marketing. They also touched on bookstore crowdfunding, the theoretical purchase of Nook by Google, trad pubs skipping over agents, if self-publishing makes you a real author, and trad pubs going direct. Question of the Week: Are you a real author if you self-publish? Why or why not? (Note: Jim says he refuses to do episode 48 unless we get 100 comments) Direct MP3 Download  =&0=&
  • How you can be a part of Bryan’s next multi-author Facebook event
  • Where you can meet Jim and Bryan in March
  • How split-testing your covers could lead to more book sales
  • 54 different kinds of blog, podcast or video posts
  • Ways to get in touch with readers through mobile platforms
  • Why Bryan thinks BookBub rejected him again
  • What one book store did to stay in business
  • Why Google buying Nook would be a good idea
  • How some trad pubs are finding new authors
  • What Michael Kozlowski thinks about indie authors
  • How Digital Book World called trad pubs out on direct sales
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Pitch Your Event Idea to Bryan read more

Episode 46 – Digital Resale, Virtual Assistants and Shorter Books

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On this week’s show, Jim and Bryan tackled their latest trio of tips, including sharing your book’s title, using Fiverr for short story covers, and hiring virtual assistants. The dynamic duo also discussed news stories related to Mark J. Dawson’s 10,000 reader survey, used e-books, Bob Mayer’s thoughts on traditional publishing, Dean Wesley Smith and the tale of how novels got their length, and Amazon’s new giveaway service. Jim also ranted twice, and it was glorious. The Question of the Week: Would you be okay with a reader re-selling your ebooks? Why or why not? read more

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