Ksenia Anske's Blog, page 20

Utilizing your Patreon, or building a tribe of loyal hamsters

Illustration by Olex Oleole

Many of you have asked me in the last few weeks about how I use Patreon and how to do it if you’re just starting out, or how to grow your audience if you have none, or how to grow your small audience THIS MUCH BIGGER.

So here are my thoughts.

Number one: I’m learning as I go, so all wisdom I’ll dispense here is “wisdom in process.”

Number two: My Patreon is slowly growing at a rate of about $100 a year (so 3 years ago it was at $100 per month, and now it’s at $300...

Step 3 to skyrocketing your book sales: Sell every day to everyone

Photo by Rus Anson

And here comes the third and final part (for now—there seems to be a fishy theme...) on skyrocketing your book sales. I’ll do more as I get closer to releasing the Author Book Selling Guide That Will Torture You into Selling More Books or Else (yes, that is the title for now).

Let me rehash the two previous posts here, the first one on selling yourself as a brand, and the second one on learning to sell your books on your own.

1. Brand.

You're selling yourself before you can...

Step 2 to skyrocketing your book sales: learn how to SELL your books yourself

Image source

To neatly fold this post into the conversation that we started in the previous post on Skyrocketing your book sales, let me present you with this timely question from Annie Pavese: 

Hey Ksenia!

I'm just about to launch my own book (in December) and I'm looking at selling options. I know you sell your books directly off your website, and I've been wanting to do the same, but I wasn't sure exactly how the process works. I've heard if you sell them yourself, you get to keep 100% of...

Step 1 to skyrocketing your book sales: Writer, you are your brand, and what you sell is YOU

I'm about to hit you with the truth that will make you scream. You can agree or disagree with it all you want. It remains a fact.

IT DOESN'T MATTER HOW GOOD OR BAD YOUR BOOK IS.

It doesn't matter how well it's written, or how long you slaved over it, or how poignant its theme is, or how urgent its story.

It doesn't even matter if some prominent industry names stand behind you and hail your book as the latest masterpiece from every rooftop until they're blue in the face and their tongues turn pu...

The 5-months book launch plan

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This post should really be titled "The 6-months book launch plan," but today is September 6th (as I'm writing this), and I'm already one month late for TUBE launch on February 6th, 2018. Five months is not quite enough, and to blow your mind even more, it's a good idea to start promoting your upcoming book a year before the launch date (or, even better, the moment you start writing it—yes, you read that right). Alas, I don't have that time, so I'll squeeze it into five months...

13 secrets to selling books like hot cakes

Illustration by Lia Bira

First, let me frighten you. Let me frighten you REAL GOOD.

What I'm about to tell you will sound like a lot of work. Let that sink in for a minute. A lot of work. Try 18-hour workdays with 6 hours of sleep. Now try 19-hour workdays with 5 hours of sleep. Crank it up to 20 and sleep only for 4 (my case at the moment). No weekends. No days off. Nada. (Don't piss your pants yet. This is not forever. Only in the beginning.)

This ain't a recipe to free bags of gold, what...

The beta reading process: 10 critical steps

Illustration by Sara Herranz

I'm starting to get beta feedback on the last draft of TUBE (just in time, before I plunge into final revisions in September), and since I shared some of it, many of you have asked about my beta reading process: how I do it, how many beta readers I have, what I send them, in what format, what I ask for in return, etc.

I dug around in my blog archives and found not one, not two, but four posts on the same topic. One from 2012, on luring beta readers with cookies....

Branding for authors: 5 not-so-secret secrets

Photo by David Peterman

Amy L. Sauder wrote: "You recently said you were rebranding...I'd love to hear an update on that and I'd also love to hear any insights you have on author branding in general."

You got it, Amy. An excellent request. Sometimes I have to drill this into my clients' heads as a must (I help a few self-published authors learn how to promote their books by doing naked dances), so this post will be something I'll refer them to from now on. Here goes. Ready?

SECRET 1: As an a...

How authors can use CRM in their marketing

Illustration by Elise Gravel

L. Penelope said: "Loving your blog! Maybe write a post on how authors can use CRM in their marketing. I'm intrigued." 

Thank you, L. Penelope! Of course. I'm in the midst of setting mine up and going through 2,000+ of my subscribers (a combined number of subscribers to my blog, newsletter, Patreon, an excel spreadsheet of beta readers, and PayPal customers; this number doesn't include over 60K combined followers on all my social media channels whom I intend to...

"Unpacking" yourself in your writing

Illustration by Franz Lang

Kely Sarmiento wrote: "I'm writing about experiences I've lived through. It's hard because the problem is not writing, it's facing myself and putting myself out there, being vulnerable. I start writing, and it's like I open a Pandora's box. I can't seem to finish the frigging thing because I want to put everything in there. It's this "all or nothing" dynamic—I tiptoe around myself, work on the corners, the edges and all around. I don't go to the core of it all. I...