Write. Publish. Repeat. (The No-Luck-Required Guide to Self-Publishing Success)

by Sean Platt

Amazon’s publishing arm, 47North,

It’s for people who believe that “obsession” is a word lazy people use to describe dedication.

The theory of 1,000 true fans states that an artist (not just writers, but musicians, filmmakers, carpenters, whatever) need only acquire 1,000 true fans to make a living at their art.

Our first CTA is usually for another purchase: either the next book or a bundle of multiple books. After that we’ll have a call to join our e-mail list in order to get upcoming books free or at a discount. We often follow with a third CTA that contains either a list of our other books or (preferably) a link to a web page with that list (seeing as we can update the webpage easily but don’t want to update all of our books’ CTAs). Somewhere in there we usually try adding a request for the reader to leave a review for the book they’ve just read.

Success comes from hard work and the accumulation of small numbers. Unlike yesterday, today’s prosperity can bloom from continuous intelligent production. For the first time in history, life as a full-time writer has become about simple math.

When you release your first book, all you really need is to get a few people to love it. When you release your second book, you want to let the people who already loved your first book know

it’s available, because they’ll want to buy it, and you want to get a few new people to like your work. Repeat, then repeat again after that.

pence.

Good word

If you have both a Createspace print version and an Amazon Kindle version of your book, the price of your Kindle book will show as a discount from the print book’s price — a small sleight of hand that makes your e-book version seem comparatively inexpensive to buyers.

If you ever get stuck, ask yourself what happens next, then next, then next. Don’t get an idea for a situation; develop the arc for your story. Pretty much every story goes like this: Someone is complacent, they face a challenge, the challenge nearly beats them, they find a way to conquer the challenge, then emerge changed at the other end.

First draft: Write for yourself with the door closed. Say it. Second draft: Revise for readers with the door open. Say what you mean. Third draft: Polish. Say it well.

We strongly believe you should write your first drafts as fast as you can.

Our bottom-line suggestion is that independent authors hire a line editor. The expense may suck, but it’s better than looking like an indie punk to your readers.

a good rule of thumb when receiving feedback from people who like and love you, in order to get a more accurate impression, is to double the negative things they say, then halve the positive.

Marketing is about offering things a certain section of people want, then finding the best ways to let those people know those things are available, priced at a fair exchange for them.

Most people don’t respond to the fans who take the time to contact them, so simply answering your fans will make you stand out.