What is a Publishing Asset?

Today, I want to talk about Publishing Assets, and what are they? Well, because publishing a book is such a lengthy endeavour, with a lot of time and money involved for sometimes small returns after the initial launch, people are looking at implementing other ideas that can also add value, either after the book is launched… or with the book, or instead of the book. So things like workbooks can help someone who’s doing an online course of yours, or they can also be given in real life courses as a workbook that’s printed out. And you can get great design templates these days for your workbooks, so you don’t need to reinvent the wheel. Why Offer a Weekly Planner There’s also weekly planners. Good if you’ve got clients who need some help with their scheduling. I was talking to a…
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fear and money traps
Self-Publishing

What does your Financial Life hold for 2020?

We made a fun 1-minute video to interest you in my new book, Creative Ways with Money, launching: eBook – via Draft2Digital on 27 JANUARY. $4.99 only that week. Paperback – all retailers on 7 FEBRUARY. $23.99 Book Trailer Template (copy) on Biteable. What’s Hiding in Creative Ways with Money–the Book? Everyone can create their own goals unhindered by Government rules. I believe the key to financial independence is down to doing several basic things: 1. Start a budget and monitor your spending 2. Create new income streams from easy-to-look-after investments and/or online educational products 3. Be careful with where you invest your money, whom you invest it with, and invest relative to risk 4. Reinvest dividends or profits and don’t spend it on fripperies. 5. Only borrow for good debt (investments, business, education), rather than bad debt (personal consumer…
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optimise book sales page

How to Optimise a Book Sales Page

A book sales page — aka a landing page — focuses the action on just one thing: your book or course. This is so new visitors can read the benefits about it without getting #distracted… as we are likely to do. When creating your book/course landing page, start with these questions: 1. What’s the purpose of my landing page? Have one clear call to action, like signing up the first video lesson, subscribing for a free chapter, or take this special fans & followers offer. 2. What am I offering my readers? — Not more information, but an ability to earn more, do more, be more productive. 3. How will my prospects benefit from what I’m offering them? — A strong “what’s in it for me”. 4. Have I incorporated the strongest selling points in the headline? 5.  Is there one clear…
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indie book sales

The Reasons Your Indie Book Isn’t Selling and What to Do About It

Since selling your already self-published book is probably the hardest thing you’ll try to do after changing your own car oil, I’ve compiled some ‘low hanging fruit’ ideas to get you started. If your book has been published through XLibris, Balboa Press, iUnivers, AuthorHouse, etcetera, then the raw cost to you of buying in your book may also be a barrier to making any profits. I heard that a regular trade paperback could be $12 each to buy in! (It should be more like $6 + shipping). Thin Records Could be the Problem If you used a ‘publishing package’ at a big group, then you might have no idea what your book record contains—and thus how poorly it may be filled out. Alas, it may also be an ISBN registered in a foreign land. Once you confirm that booksellers here…
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how to use book design templates
Book Design, Self-Publishing

Save Time (and Money) with Book Design Templates

This post is about saving time and how to use book design templates yourself. But, if you’re a professional, you’ll probably want to hire a book designer. Why? Because great book designers match the typeface to the cover and they think about the whole book’s look and feel. They can’t use a template for that, except as a starting point for size and margins. The other reason is because they are pros at it. First of all, I can’t mind-read whether you are using MS Word, InDesign, or Pages. (If you’re considering another program, like Publisher, for book design, it’s probably not a great idea). For fairness, we’ll talk about each one. Personal Fave: InDesign Yes, there are some benefits to subscribing to Adobe InDesign, and one of them is a selection of instantly downloadable ‘sort of free’ fonts. (The…
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Book Creation Success Club
Publicity, Self-Publishing

Why a Book Creation Club for Indie Authors?

To answer the question of why a self-publishing membership is needed, let’s go back to 2008, when I was navigating self-publishing my first full book to sell to the public. There was little information available to me to find out how to print cheaply, get a cover design done (DIY ugh!), and sell my well-researched book to people other than my own network. I tried a public seminar—what a failure. I handed out flyers about it, and people looked startled. I would like to have known many different realities and knowledge about self-publishing, starting with the philosophical question: is this all worth it?  Each of us have our own criteria, and therefore our own answer.  But one thing is for sure, a Book Writing & Publishing club offers a handy resource for indie authors. To me, being an author-publisher-entrepreneur is…
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