Other Books
how newsletters sell books and services
Publicity, Selling eBooks and Media

How Newsletters Sell both Books and Services

Why are Author Newsletters a Low Hanging Fruit? (An extract from my Micro Publisher book) When building any information-based business, influencing new readers is all part of the process… and we don’t do that overnight. Monthly newsletters make this super simple. Rather than solely worrying over promos – what new campaign to offer your email list – you set up a systematic schedule of writing and emailing a newsletter. The beauty is, anything you put into a blog can be transferred to a newsletter, either with RSS setup or simply copying the details and headings. I would suggest putting as much real and actionable content into your newsletter as possible and don’t rely on ‘read more’ links. Over time, my list shows that 2-3% click the read more link, so I switched to one long article and one promotion of…
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Emerging Indie Authors
Self-Publishing

Top 16 Up-and-Coming Indie Authors

Those of us around long enough to know Beetlejuice movie #1 will realise that Indie Authors become their own micro publisher – they don’t pay some other company to publish. If you want to do this also, my new book on Micro Publishing is coming soon.  This list includes (to my knowledge) authors who have made their personal brand into a publishing imprint – at least in the beginning – and have had success. I think it’s important to look beyond the obvious authors who have had a leg up. Most are emerging indie authors from Australia but a few are based elsewhere and some parlayed their success in indie publishing into traditional publishing deals.  You’ll notice most actively publish multiple books. This is because we always get better when we do a process again, revising what didn’t work and…
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Learning to do, not to have (writer learning)
Book reviews, Book Writing

Learning to Do, Not Learning to Have

Most of the educational learning we do is theoretical and ‘nice to know’, but, according to researchers, has little adaptation to the real world. This is alarming. However, there is a lot we can do to improve our learning and skill take-up. In ‘Ultralearning‘ by Scott H Young, he gives four ways to learn directly. These are: Learn through a Project – SkillShare and Coursera courses let you do this. It works on two levels: your project aim makes for practical outcomes and your learning becomes more enjoyable and fruitful. Immersive Learning – Going to the region to learn the language works far better than learning on an app. The Flight Simulator Method – Students of a US high school found that when trying an important matter in a mock courtroom, they got way more specific, adaptive learning. Critical thinking…
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how to create a digital product to help book sales
Selling eBooks and Media

How to Create a Digital Product to Help Book Profits

As nonfiction topic specialists, we all know that royalties aren’t quite enough, and your expertise and advice is worth a lot more than $5 per customer! So, it may be time to learn about a tool which has a way to add a simple coaching service or digital product to your book. You used to need to use a shopping cart like WooCommerce plus Woo Payments (setup time!) and connect a processor if you wanted to sell anything virtually (through WordPress). No longer! A product in this post is one that Jennifer uses herself and endorses to others – if you click on the link and go through the trial to purchase, Jennifer gets a commission. Now, you can use a main EMS platform to host each product and its payment options. Or still use a sales page in your…
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AI replace editors and writers
Book Editing

Will AI Replace Editors and Writers?

Like almost everything, the concept of Artificial Intelligence (AI) is both good and bad. AI and machine learning is already replacing pesky jobs — like auditing a huge news site — yet it could also threaten the livelihoods of editors, journalists, and content writers. In 2019, we all didn’t believe jobs would disappear. Now, in 2024, we see that content writers are becoming editors of generated chats in a forced vocational transition. AI programs can scan a newspaper’s back issues and by learning the style, it can write feasible news articles from releases. Some places, like Sports Illustrated, have gotten into trouble by not marking that articles were written by artificial means.  The Washington Post has a robot reporting program called Heliograf. However, The Post is using their system to not replace journalists, but to assist them and make their jobs…
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writers who are writing coaches
Book Writing

Everybody wants Inspiration to Write, Nobody wants Perspiration

There seems to be many myths surrounding writing a book (or a paper, for that matter). Most of these centre on the idea of ‘the muse’ and waiting for inspiration to strike. We mess about all day, thinking we’re adding to our work by reading a bunch of articles, going on Quora, and then immediately forgetting what was found. I don’t want you to be that person. The one thing you might want to stop to read is a book I found years ago. It’s called ‘55 Essential Strategies for Every Writer’ by Roy Peter Clarke. In the preface, it says: “These practical tools will help to dispel your writing inhibitions, making the craft central to the way you see the world. As you add tools to your workbench, you’ll begin to see the world as a storehouse of writing ideas.…
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