Nick Stephenson's Blog, page 2

The Cost of Self Publishing is Focusing on the Wrong Thing

We all know it’s tough to get visibility out there in author-land, not to mention how hard you need to work (at first) to get those early reviews and mailing list subscribers. After all, you just busted your butt to get your work out there – and now you’ve got to bust your butt all over again to get noticed?

Yeah… I’ve felt that particular sinking feeling myself many times in the past.

The good news? Trust me, it gets MUCH easier once you know what you’re doing (that’s what I’m here for). Which...

Why Authors Fail

There’s been a lot of super-serious talk on the interwebs that “the Kindle goldrush is over” and that “Kindle Unlimited is ruining authors’ careers” and “ebook sales have plateaued”. Further, these news reports are being cited as the reason why authors fail to build a successful career on Amazon and the other ebook retailers.

To that, I say “hogwash”.

And not just because I love the word “hogwash”, but because this kind of fear-mongering isn’t only misleading – it’s downright harmful. Look, the...

Income Report: Why Exclusivity is Bad (Unless You’re Amazon)

Don’t get me wrong – exclusivity can be a wonderful thing. If you’re getting something in return. Consider this situation:

You sell breakfast cereal. Some of your products are at the budget end of the scale, others more premium. Your net wholesale profit per unit is around $2 – $4, depending on the product range in question. You sell to Walmart, who represent about 85% of your sales, and a bunch of other supermarkets who make up the other 15%. Things are looking pretty good.

One day, Walmart ca...

Four Reasons Readers Don’t Buy Your Books (it’s not your prices)

I’m kicking off today’s postwith the following question: can you spot the important difference between these two vintage car ads?

Advert #1

Advert #2

I first came across this comparison on a popular sales psychology website [linkbelow], and it got me thinking… how do these kind of (genius) persuasion techniques apply to your career as an author?

As it turns out, they apply big time.

You see, whatever people might say, books – especially ebooks – are cheap. Most self-publishers who sell books on Ki...

Why “Just Write More Books” is Terrible Advice: Introducing Reader Magnets

There’s some very bad advice going round the internet.The idea that an author can “just write more books” and be successful is about as useful as suggesting to Barnes and Noble that in order to boost profits they “just need more stock”.

It’s crazy. And authors follow this advice, then wonder why (fifteen books later down the line) sales aren’t where they want them to be. And that’s because simply producing more content doesn’twork.

Not by itself.

What use is more content if nobody’s reading the...

Why Worrying about Genre is Holding You Back

I get a lot of emails from other authors who are struggling to gain momentum on their titles. Some of these authors have dozens of books out for sale (one industrious chap even had 70+) but sales aren’t where they’d like them. The main reasonsI hear about?

“My book is in an unpopular genre.” Or, “Advice about book marketing doesn’t apply to my books. They’re too obscure.”

I get it, I really do. You’ve written something totally outside of the traditional idea of BISAC codes (the genre categories...

The $10k Self-Published Book Launch

September has been a busy, busy month, and it’s been one of the least productive in terms of actually getting any writing done. Instead, I’ve spent a considerable amount of time trying to grow some alternative revenue streams, while attempting to keep my existing income steady. It’s been a real slog.But it was totally worth it.

On the 18th of September, I launched a new book. I didn’t publish via Amazon, Nook, Kobo, or iTunes. Instead, I launched the title on WarriorPlus – a popular sales netw...

Could you survive without KDP?

Before you ask, yes that is Vin Diesel dressed as the Mona Lisa… A short post this week, while I’m gearing up for a big launch later this month (more on that soon – it’s going to be pretty epic). I wanted to talk a little bit about diversification in this post, and what I’m doing to lessen my reliance on the KDP platform when it comes to selling books. In short, the ebook retailer options for authors can be summed up pretty easily:

Amazon is awesome. Most of the time. Unless you’re published w...

Supercharge Your Kindle Sales

Today’s post is about the sexy, exciting world of keywords and metadata. Try to contain your excitement before you fall off your chair. For those who aren’t familiar with the term, “metadata” is what Amazon and other sites use to determine where on their shop floor your book gets stocked. It can affect everything from genre categories to search results, and is quite possibly the number 1 factor in helping to get your book noticed.A little under 90 days ago, I decided to spend some time tweaki...

Kindle Unlimited – Some Early Results

For anyone still living under a rock, or perhaps a particularly voracious shrub, you’ll probably already know that Amazon’s new Kindle Unlimited program launched over the weekend, spurring a veritable explosion of opinion (both optimistic and doom-mongering) across the interwebs. Of course, much of what people are speculating is, well, just that – speculation.

So, in an attempt to add a little objectivity into the mix (God forbid) I figured I’d let you know how the new Kindle Unlimited service...