This article is dedicated to all struggling authors out there.
Have you spent countless hours and hundreds of dollars publishing your book only to find it gets lost among all the other self-published wannabe books?
Do you wish you knew why you sabotage any chance of success before you even write a single word?
Please, read on and don’t lose hope because this article was written for you!
In this article, you’re going to discover the little known insights that only a handful of best-selling self-published authors know.
I want to make things very clear from the start. You can know 80 to 90% of the information presented out there about what it takes to be a successful author, but it may only be one or two little things you overlook that will kill your success.
It takes a different perspective to become a successful self-published author.
While many authors are highly educated, well-read, and have attended many publishing and marketing seminars, they’re still struggling because of a few missing links that I can catch right away when I look at their work.
That’s why I’ve written this article to provide you with clarity and insight about the big picture of book publishing for both non-fiction and fiction books.
This is all about teaching authors how to turn their businesses around, with practical tips and tools that you can take away to immediately improve your book’s quality and sales.
That said, let’s be clear on what you won’t find in this article. This article isn’t about improving your writing skills, specific marketing tactics, or how to go through the technical process of publishing a book.
There will be occasional tips for all these things, but that’s not the point of this.
This article is meant to explain why, even if you’ve read all those other books for authors, you might still be struggling to get results. It will show you the principles successful authors follow that struggling authors don’t. Learning these things, while a prerequisite for success, is not an assurance of it. Becoming a successful author is achievable for many who are willing to put in the time and effort, but it’s a skill that needs to be practiced.
So don’t read any piece of content, including this one, and expect it to make you successful.
Instead, use this knowledge to point you in the right direction and show you some blind spots. After that, it’s up to you to take action to fix things. This means most of the learning won’t take place while you read this article. Rather, my hope is that you’ll go through this asking, “What’s my lesson and how can I apply this?”
To me, this is particularly true for the areas you don’t think apply to you.
That said, you can be successful without reading this article, but you can’t be successful without learning the lessons.
You Can’t Be Successful If You Don’t Know What It Means To You
The first main topic is about defining success, and it’s a pretty important topic, especially for writers.
Aspiring authors often define success in different ways. Some measure success by hitting an income goal, while others simply want to get their book published and out into the world.
However, the definition of success can be tricky and can create frustration depending on how it’s defined. Success can be seen as an event, such as achieving a bestseller or hitting an income target, or it can be defined as an ongoing process or way of being.
Defining success as an event can lead to a pattern of excitement and drive leading up to the event, followed by disappointment and frustration if there are setbacks. This pattern can lead to giving up altogether or feeling like a failure even if progress is being made.
On the other hand, defining success as a process or way of being can help people see success in everyday actions and feel like a success even if they haven’t achieved a specific event.
It’s also important to remember that setbacks and failures are not necessarily failures, but can be opportunities for growth and learning. Embracing failure as a part of the process can lead to more success in the long run.
The goal here is to help aspiring authors, like yourself, understand the habits, skills, and perspectives that differentiate struggling authors from successful ones. This isn’t a “fake it till you make it” scenario. This is the need for a complete perspective shift from your current writer mindset.
The most important takeaway for you is the idea that defining success as an ongoing process can help you push forward in the face of setbacks and failures. As a writer, that’s incalculably valuable.
Many aspiring authors feel discouraged when they don’t see immediate results but understanding that failure is not a permanent state and can actually be a valuable learning experience can help shift your mindset towards long-term growth and improvement. And most of all, it will prevent you from quitting!
Remember, successful authors didn’t quit.
Mindset Failures
When it comes to writing and publishing a book, it’s not just about the skills you learn from countless resources. You have to prepare yourself internally for the battle ahead and, as you know, it is a battle.
Unfortunately, many authors fail because they hold on to limiting beliefs and attitudes that can sabotage their success before, they even start writing.
There are very specific mindset killers that can guarantee an author’s failure.
Letting Yourself Get Overwhelmed
Here’s a mindset mistake that nearly all authors can relate to – getting overwhelmed.
It’s not uncommon for an author to understand the entire process of researching, writing, and marketing their book, but then feel so overwhelmed by all the different steps involved that they end up freezing and failing to take action. It’s like they’re staring at a mountain they must climb, but they can’t even take the first step.
This feeling of overwhelm can be just as dangerous as not considering the individual steps at all.
In fact, some authors get so bogged down that they never even finish writing their book, or they publish it but don’t bother with marketing it because the whole process seems too daunting.
The key to overcoming overwhelm is to remember that success is a process made up of many small steps. You can’t do everything at once, but you can do anything one thing at a time.
Break your goals down into manageable pieces and focus only on your next step. Don’t worry about all the other tasks that might not be important until later.
One trick to get yourself started is to use the three magic words for taking action:
Can I just…?
- Can I just take 5 minutes to brainstorm some chapter ideas?
- Can I just write 3 blog articles that could be potential content for my upcoming book?
- Can I just do one thing to market my book today?
- Choose a task that is so easy and small that you can’t fail to do it.
Then ask yourself, can I just do a little more?
You also need to avoid getting distracted by all the other tasks that need to be done.
Have a system in place to manage these distractions, like a notepad or folder on your computer desktop where you can file away your “to do later” ideas.
When you find yourself getting overwhelmed or distracted, simply ask yourself, “Is this what’s most important right now?”
If the answer is no, file it away for later and focus on what’s most important in the present moment.
Treating Publishing As A Hobby
Many struggling authors treat publishing as a hobby. What does that say about your own confidence or goals or desires?
If writing is just a hobby for you, then the following advice may not apply. However, if you are reading this book to improve your chances of success, then you need to adopt a more business-minded approach to book publishing.
Successful authors treat publishing like a business, while struggling authors treat it like a hobby.
There are three key things that authors need to do to become successful:
1) focus on the customer’s agenda,
2) view time and money spent on the book as an investment, and
3) adapt to a changing market by keeping their skills up to date.
By being customer-oriented, you can ensure that they create content that resonates with their target audience.
This doesn’t mean that you should completely sacrifice your artistic vision, but you should be willing to make compromises to meet your readers’ needs.
For instance, all authors should avoid using clever titles that readers might not understand. Make it easy for a browsing web surfer to immediately identify your book and what it’s about.
If when you tell someone your working title, and they have to ask you what it means, and you explain that it’s a reference to something specific in chapter 8, and they’ll understand it when they read it… huge mistake. Change the title!
Furthermore, authors must also view expenses as investments.
Spending money on high-quality book covers or hiring editors can result in more sales and profits in the long run. As with any business, you need to invest time and money into your craft, and you need to continuously learn and grow.
Finally, successful authors adapt to changes in the market and stay up-to-date with the latest marketing strategies. You should be asking how you can give value to your readers, instead of just trying to make a profit.
Focus on creating content that resonates with your audience and builds you a loyal following as an author. This shift in mindset can also help authors view their investments as opportunities for growth and learning.
It’s important to remember that success doesn’t happen overnight, and both successes and failures are learning opportunities of equal value.
Believing Passion Is Enough
You’ve undoubtedly heard by many people that if you’re passionate about something, that’s all it takes. That success and passion go hand in hand.
Absolutely not true!
Passion is important. After all, if you don’t love what you’re writing, then what’s the point, right?
But passion alone won’t guarantee success in the publishing world. And far too many very passionate writers have fallen flat on their faces because they didn’t have the necessary skills to market and sell their books.
Passion doesn’t sell books! Passion doesn’t get you publicity. And passion certainly can’t market and advertise for you.
Passion is internal, not external. Passion and commitment will help you get your book written, but that’s where it ends. The business side of self-publishing isn’t about passion, it’s about knowledge and hard work and follow through. Like most things in life.
Thankfully, these skills can be learned. It’s not just about writing a great story, it’s also about writing effective and engaging book descriptions, finding the right book cover designers, understanding what readers want, and delivering it to them. These are all skills that can be developed and honed over time.
I know it can be overwhelming to think about all the different skills you need to master, especially if you’re taking the self-publishing route. But don’t worry, you don’t have to be good at every step of the writing and publishing process. You can delegate certain tasks to others who have the skills you lack.
If you’re not sure which skills you need to work on, don’t be afraid to seek coaching or guidance. It’s always a good idea to keep learning and growing as a writer.
And speaking of delegating tasks, one area where I highly recommend getting assistance is hiring an editor. Trust me, having a fresh set of eyes on your manuscript can make all the difference in the quality of your book.
So, to sum it all up, passion is important, but it’s not enough. To be a successful author, you need to identify which skills you need to develop, practice those skills until you become proficient, and delegate tasks to others who have the skills you lack. And don’t forget to keep learning and growing as a writer.
Motivation Failures
There’s a common obstacle that derails success for most authors first starting out: a failure to act on knowledge.
You can’t set ambitious goals and expect to reach them without taking action.
While many might attribute a lack of productivity to a lack of motivation, it’s actually a far more complex picture.
Simply seeking more motivation is often not the answer. Instead, authors can fall into unproductive habits, struggle with emotional obstacles like fear, or lack effective systems to support their work. By addressing these four mistakes, however, authors can improve their productivity and achieve better results in their writing and marketing efforts.
In fact, the same strategies that help people overcome obstacles like emotional eating and procrastination can be applied to writing and publishing.
Not Managing Your State Effectively
Well known coach, Brandon Broadwater, teaches that managing one’s state is one of the primary keys to success. Your state refers to how you are feeling.
When you are in a good state, you feel energetic, creative, and ready to work hard. Conversely, when you are in a poor state, you feel depressed, angry, unfocused, and lack the willpower to do anything productive. We all have times when our state is high, low, or somewhere in between. Feeling motivated is often the result of being in a good state.
However, my problem with the concept of motivation is that, from one perspective, you can never be more or less motivated than you currently are. You are as motivated as you will ever be. It’s just that a person may be more motivated to keep up with the Kardashians than to write a chapter of their book.
So, what do you do when you are feeling unmotivated, and your state is low, leaving you unable to be productive?
One option is to bypass your feelings, use willpower, and rely on habits to get you through. This will be covered in the next section. The second and more obvious option is to change your state. The mistake struggling authors make is that they wait for a productive state to occur by chance instead of proactively getting themselves in the state of productivity.
There are several ways to manage your state, including physical activity and mental refocusing. Let’s take a look at some of the most effective methods I have found for each.
The first method is to find your “why.” Jim Rohn says, “The bigger the why, the easier the how.” This means that the bigger and more emotionally driven your reason for being a successful author is, the more you can draw upon the passion it gives you to push through the challenging times. You’re going to have plenty of reasons not to do the things it takes to be a successful author, as they will require pushing your comfort zone.
This means you must have a reason or reasons to draw upon to change that are bigger than your reasons to stay the same. Consider asking yourself, “Why is being a successful author important to me?” Don’t just stop at the first reason you come up with. Continue to ask “why” for each answer you can think of. For example, “What will happen a year from now if I don’t get this done? What about five years? What else will this allow me to do, and how will that impact the people I love the most? If I only had 30 days left to live, what kind of book would I want to leave behind for the world, and how can I get it published in that time?”
Whenever you’re feeling like you lack motivation, you can always go back and remind yourself of why you want to be a successful author. If the reason you currently have doesn’t inspire you, then spend some more time considering these questions.
The second method is to use the concept of “would I rather.”
In psychology, there’s a concept called reactance, which is the feeling of wanting to rebel against anyone telling us what to do. The problem is, we often boss ourselves around by saying things like “I have to do this” or “I can’t do that.”
Research shows that this approach of taking away a sense of choice will drain your willpower. The simple way to get around this is to present everything as a choice, which, it is, anyway. With “would I rather,” you’ll present two options and give consequences for each. For example, “Would I rather sit and watch TV, not sell any copies of my book, and then feel guilty.”
So, that means that you’re feeling stuck in a low state, it may be worth considering changing up your environment to something that inspires you. This could be as simple as moving to a different room in your house, going to a local park or coffee shop, or even taking a trip to a new location to get some fresh inspiration.
Managing your state is a crucial factor in becoming a successful author. Instead of waiting for a productive state to occur by chance, it’s important to proactively get yourself in the state of productivity.
This can be done through finding your why, presenting options as a choice, changing your physiology, and changing your environment. By using these methods, you can take control of your state and achieve your goals as an author.
Being Too Easily Distracted
Aspiring writers often let themselves become easily distracted. One of the biggest hurdles that writers face is getting sidetracked by distractions. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve been diligently working on my book and then, suddenly, I’m in the kitchen rummaging for a snack, even though I’m not hungry. In a previous section, I discussed the emotional side of getting into the zone for maximum productivity.
However, there’s a flip side to this, which involves using your willpower to get yourself into a focused state and maintain it daily until it becomes a habit.
So, how do you fix this issue? The key is to use your willpower. The first thing to understand about willpower is that it’s a finite resource that can be depleted.
You’ll generally have more willpower earlier in the day, when you’re in a good mood, and when your stress levels are lower. However, you can gradually strengthen your willpower over time with practice.
The trick is to set small, achievable goals that you can easily accomplish each day until they become habits. This could mean writing just 50 words a day, posting about your book on social media once a day, or sending out one business-related email per day. By setting small goals that require little willpower, you’ll be able to build up your discipline and follow through on these tasks until they become second nature.
The second component of managing distractions is to use your willpower to control your environment. Create rewards and consequences, and set deadlines for yourself. Treat your writing time like a job or appointment, and stick to a schedule. Set up ground rules with your family or roommates about your writing time, and take responsibility for managing distractions.
Turn off your phone or disconnect from the internet if they are too tempting. Only allow yourself to engage in other activities after you’ve completed your writing goal for the day.
Finally, set daily and weekly goals and deadlines to keep yourself accountable.
While much of this advice may seem like common sense, it’s often the simplest things that make the biggest difference in achieving success. Don’t let distractions get in the way of your writing goals. Use your willpower to stay focused and committed, and you’ll be on your way to becoming a more productive writer.
Perfectionism Isn’t Real So Stop Letting It Get In Your Way
Perfectionism hinders authors from finishing their books. If you were brought up with the idea of “do it right or don’t do it at all,” you might struggle with perfectionism. This trait often makes authors hesitant to share their work, fearing judgment about its imperfections.
However, readers do not expect perfection; they care about the value that the author adds to their lives.
Perfectionism is a selfish trait disguised as caring about the reader’s experience, and it ultimately holds authors back from achieving their goals.
Striving for excellence is admirable, but perfectionism can be debilitating. Many authors with this trait take an absurdly long time to finish their books or hesitate to publish them, even if they’re complete.
The reality is that it’s next to impossible to get anything right the first time. It’s important to remember that there will always be ways to improve, and imperfect attempts are necessary for growth.
Overcoming perfectionism is crucial because every moment you delay publishing your book, people are missing out on what you have to offer.
If you feel you have a message that the world needs to hear, it’s important to put it out there. You don’t have to publish a perfect book; you just must make sure it adds value to people’s lives.
The fix-it-as-you-go approach is essential in book publishing. If you can’t afford an editor or a great cover designer, do the best you can and improve these things as soon as possible. Writing a sucky book and improving on it in the second one is better than not finishing anything at all.
To overcome perfectionism, shift your focus to the value you’re delivering to others. Ask yourself questions like, “Can I allow myself to finish this knowing that the feedback will help me improve down the road?” or “Is it more important for this to be perfect or to add value to people’s lives right now?”
Act first and analyze later.
Let the right-brain creativity flow first before going to left-brain analysis.
Remember, you can always make it better down the road.
A Lack of Accountability
Simply stated, authors who struggle often lack accountability.
In traditional work environments, employees have supervisors who oversee their progress, ensuring that they complete their tasks on time and with the desired level of quality.
Parents must also keep their children on track, while teachers grade student assignments and offer guidance. These forms of accountability provide a level of external motivation that is often missing for self-published authors.
In the absence of external accountability, the most successful authors seek out their own forms of motivation to ensure their work is completed to a high standard, even if they are self-disciplined.
Personally, I find that I work much harder when I have someone or something keeping me accountable.
For this reason, I belong to mastermind groups that provide me with external accountability. Within these groups, I commit to completing tasks by a specific deadline, and I offer to pay group members if I fail to do so. As an example, I am about to leave for vacation in a week and a half, so I must complete the draft of a book and send it to my editor before I leave. Failing to do so would significantly delay the book’s release.
To ensure that I complete the book on time, I set daily target goals that will ensure that I finish one day before my deadline.
Authors who lack external accountability, even if they are self-disciplined, may not be as productive as they could be, and this can reduce their overall success.
To remedy this situation, the best action is to find someone to hold you accountable.
A mentor or coach can serve as your accountability partner and help you set deadlines. If you don’t have access to a mentor or coach, consider enlisting a friend to help keep you on track.
Other strategies for creating accountability include setting deadlines for tasks and offering a reward or punishment for completion or failure, respectively. You could also pre-sell your book, setting a release date that forces you to complete it on time. Announcing your goals on social media can also provide a level of external motivation, as can joining author groups or challenges where participants are assigned daily tasks to complete and post in the group.
Finally, sites like Stick.com can be used to create consequences for failing to act, or you can create your own system of rewards and punishments for completing or failing to complete tasks.
Book Failures
Although the primary focus of this article isn’t centered on how to write a fantastic book, we can all agree that producing poor-quality books that readers don’t enjoy, will hinder an author’s long-term success.
While the terms “good” and “bad” are subjective, there are specific formulas and principles that can help ensure you create a book that your intended audience will relish and want to share with others.
I’ll presume that most people are aware that books ought to be free of errors, formatted correctly, offer value to readers, and be easy to read.
There are numerous qualified editors who can assist with all these requirements.
In this section, you’ll learn about the underlying psychology that attracts people to books and how you can offer precisely what your readers desire through your content.
Not Following The Formula
Struggling authors often fail to follow proven formulas. It’s important to note that almost every best-selling book falls into one of four blueprints:
1) tip-based non-fiction,
2) outline or step-by-step non-fiction,
3) three-act story or hero’s journey fiction, and
4) essay-style non-fiction.
Readers subconsciously expect books to follow one of these formats, and are often disappointed if they don’t.
These blueprints are laid out by Robin Hoffman, who can be found at gitpublishedcoach.com.
Best-selling books typically have hooks and seeds that instantly engage readers and keep them turning the page.
A hook is anything that sucks readers in, such as a dramatic scene or an engaging question, while seeds are foreshadowing of something exciting that is coming up later in the book.
To fix this mistake, authors must understand what readers expect from books and use structures for writing. You can achieve a level of mastery of the system through experiential learning, such as reading and analyzing the types of books that are similar to what you want to write.
Fiction authors should be familiar with the hero’s journey format and should be well-versed on using engaging hooks.
While following formulas may seem restrictive, it can actually enhance creativity, and it’s important to remember that as an author, you should focus on your readers’ expectations, rather than your own. While it is your book, you’re writing it for them.
Failing To Innovate
Oftentimes, those with an entrepreneurial mindset will attempt to copy or imitate exactly what they see that’s working and doing well.
You may have come across these knock-off books yourself.
While it is important to model what is already working, blindly copying someone else’s success without understanding why they achieved it won’t get the same results – guaranteed.
The most successful businesses are typically trailblazers, rather than imitators and as an author, you’re in the business of selling your book and your brand as an author.
If all a person does is copy what is successful without adding anything new, they will get lost in the endless sea of mediocre books that fail to stand out or offer anything of unique value. While these types of books may sell well in the short term, they rarely make enough of an impression to stand the test of time.
On the opposite end of the spectrum, artistic-minded authors may try to do something that has never been done before. They strive so much to create something completely original that the market doesn’t know what to make of it. They struggle because they are starting from scratch, rather than learning from the insights of those who came before them.
You need to strike a balance by modeling what is working already so that you fit in with what is popular, but you must also be unique enough to stand apart from all the other books out there. Just like yin and yang, these two qualities come together to form a balanced whole. The formula for innovation is imitation plus creation, which equals innovation.
Innovation is both an art and a science, and it can’t necessarily be taught in a paint-by-numbers step-by-step system.
Instead, you need to locate the sweet spot by learning to activate your own creativity.
Ultimately, it is a matter of trying things, failing, and continuing to tweak them until something works. Experiential learning trumps passive learning once again. In the previous section, you learned about the importance of imitation by following proven formulas. You’ll get better at this as you analyze and model other successful books.
The other end of the spectrum is to take a proven concept and add a twist to it so that your book stands out. This is the creative side of things.
One of the best ways to tap into the creative powers of your brain is by asking questions.
For fiction authors, some questions to stimulate creative thinking include:
What story hasn’t been written that I would want to read?
What is missing from the stories I love?
How can I model an existing story and make it brand new?
If there is something that’s never been done before, what would it be?
For nonfiction authors, ask yourself:
What value can I deliver that hasn’t already been offered?
What book needs to be created?
How can I say what’s been said before with a different voice or perspective?
It may take time to reflect on these questions to get your creative energy flowing. They are not things you ask once, come up blank, and then give up on.
These are especially good questions to ask yourself while browsing through a bookstore or looking through your own library. You do not have to be the most creative author on the planet to offer something unique to your readers.
If there is something you do that’s a little different while still following the overall structure that readers expect, you will likely find a niche audience who resonates with your style.
It’ll take some confidence-building and listening to feedback from others for you to realize what you have to offer as a nonfiction author isn’t new information, but a new perspective.
Stop Trying To Please Everyone
Many aspiring writers get caught up in trying to please everyone. It typically stems from a desire for approval for our work. After all, who doesn’t deeply want validation.
However, it’s important to note that perfectionism and people pleasing are two separate things.
Perfectionism is focused on our own feelings about the work, while people pleasing is more concerned with how others will view our work. In other words, perfectionism is driven by what the author feels is right, while people pleasing is driven by what the author believes others feel is right.
It’s important to understand that no matter what you do, there will always be people who criticize your work. As a matter of fact, if one-third of people don’t hate what you’re doing, you’re probably not pushing yourself hard enough. Even the most successful authors, businesses, and works of art have their share of critics.
One of the challenges in nonfiction is that readers have different learning styles. Some prefer lots of facts and details, while others just want you to get straight to the point. You can’t please everyone, so it’s important to focus on your own strengths and style.
When it comes to fiction, people’s tastes and storytelling styles are as varied as their tastes in food. If you run an Italian restaurant, you don’t need to try to cater to people who prefer Chinese food.
Instead, you make the best Italian food you can make. While you should strive to improve your storytelling abilities, it’s important to understand that at some point, certain people simply won’t like what you’re trying to do.
The challenge is to balance improving your work based on feedback from others without sacrificing your own sense of style. The key is to seek out quality feedback. Comments like “your book sucks” or “your book is the best thing ever” lack constructive insight. Instead, you need to ask high-quality questions that encourage readers to share more about what is working and what’s not.
If you receive praise for your work, good questions to ask include “what did you enjoy most about this book?” or “was there anything in particular that you found helpful?”
For nonfiction, ask “what did you find most helpful?” or “what is your favorite part and why?”
Additionally, ask, “what could make this even better?”
When you get this feedback, use it to your advantage.
For example, if readers enjoy your casual, conversational style, don’t edit it out to be more formal. Instead, cater to your target readers.
If you’re looking for constructive feedback on how to improve your book, a great question to ask is, “how can I make this even better?” This question implies that the work isn’t bad, but could simply use improvement. It’s a great question to ask both yourself and your readers.
Keep in mind that you will get conflicting opinions, but it’s important to stay focused on your ultimate objective while remaining open to understanding that each person may have something valuable to offer in their feedback.
Marketing Failures
Have you ever come across an exceptional book that surpassed all its competition, yet failed to gain traction? If you’re the author of such a book, you may be baffled as to why the finest works often fall short in terms of sales.
The truth is, a book’s success is reliant on its marketing strategy. It’s important to remember that people purchase a book even before they have the chance to read it. This means that book sales are influenced by the perceived value of the book, which requires authors to master the art of persuasion and promotion.
The good news is, I’m here to share with you the principles that will enable you to boost book sales without resorting to spammy or unethical sales tactics.
You Gotta Know Your Audience
One of the first questions an expert marketer will ask you is who is your target audience?
Some authors believe that everyone should love their book and haven’t even thought about a target audience. However, it’s difficult to market a book to everyone. It’s much easier to target a specific group and attract readers from outside that group in the process. It’s important to note that authors don’t need to know their ideal reader when they first start writing a book.
Discovering your target audience can be a process as you put your work out there and see who naturally gravitates towards it. But it’s essential to know your audience to maximize your marketing efforts.
The best practice is to determine your target audience before writing a book. The title, subtitle, and contents of the book can be tailored to resonate with the ideal reader.
For example, the book Kindle Bestseller Secrets is specifically targeted to nonfiction authors who want to publish on Kindle and are frustrated with the lack of results. Fiction authors, non-Kindle ebook authors, and hobbyists could benefit from the book, but they’re not the target audience.
As such, the marketing efforts for that book speak directly to the target audience, from the title to the description and contents.
If you’re not sure who your target audience is, a simple strategy is to ask yourself what books are like yours and who reads them.
Even if your book is unique, there’s likely a niche you can identify.
Once you find one or two similar books, check out the “customers who bought this item also bought” section on Amazon.com.
You can also look at the author’s profile and see other similar authors that Amazon displays.
Reading reviews, checking out authors’ websites, and looking at their comments and social media profiles will also help you understand their audience.
Alternatively, you can create books and see who is drawn to them. You’ll need to have a way to track who is buying your books, such as an opt-in page on your website that connects readers to a newsletter. You can gather feedback by sending out surveys and analyzing the responses.
This will help you see the types of people who are buying your books. For those published on Amazon, the review system also gives you insight into your readership.
Not Using Your Present Fanbase To Sell For You
One of the common mistakes struggling authors make is not using their fans to sell their books.
You can’t expect to sell a ton of books by just telling people how great it is. Successful authors know the importance of social proof in marketing and persuasion.
Social proof is when we look at what others are doing to make decisions. If thousands of people are buying a book and raving about it, then we assume it must be good. Social proof works because readers are less likely to trust an author to be objective when they talk about how great their book is. But if a reader or third-party reviewer praises the book, then we assume they’re being honest.
However, struggling authors make a mistake by either getting the wrong kind of reviews or not leveraging the good reviews they do get. They often reach out to family, friends, and other authors for reviews and testimonials exclusively. While there’s nothing wrong with testimonials from these people, readers want to see reviews from others who are just like them.
Successful authors know how to get the right testimonials and ensure it’s one of the first things people hear about. They also recruit their fans to promote their books for them. Finally, they make sure the popularity of their book is made known to potential readers by highlighting book reviews and testimonials whenever they get them.
To get genuine reviews, the first step is to ask the right people for a review. You should include a call to action at the end of your book and give them a reason why leaving a review is important.
You can also establish yourself as an expert by creating connections with other authorities in your niche and leveraging their audience.
Guest blog posts are a great way to do this.
Another way is to build a following on social media platforms like Twitter and Facebook.
Not Getting Attention
So it all comes down to grabbing their attention. As self-published authors, we need everything to work in our favor to compete against big-name authors and publishers who can invest in creating great covers and marketing.
Struggling authors assume that if they have a great book, it will sell well. Successful authors understand the buying process of book buyers and ensure that their book evokes powerful emotions in readers.
Self-published authors often fail because they don’t have a title or cover that captivates potential readers.
While titles are more critical for nonfiction books, covers are equally important for both genres.
Even if the title and cover manage to attract attention, as a self-published author, you may still fail if they don’t hold that attention with an intriguing book description.
So how can you fix this mistake?
First, the cover must grab the reader’s attention. If you’re treating your writing as a business, you’ll seek out and pay to get a book cover designed for maximum results. The cover must look professional. The litmus test is whether you’d notice it in a bookstore. If the answer is no, then it’s negatively affecting your sales.
To make the designer’s job easier, find a few covers in your genre that mimic the effect you’re going for.
Cover designers can be found on websites like 99designs.com, Right.com, Upwork.com and even Fiverr, although I strongly advise you to go with a Fiverr Pro.
Second, have a captivating title and description for your book. The best way to learn how to do this is through experiential learning. Take the time to go through similar books in your genre, see what grabs your attention, and learn to model it.
Put yourself in a book buyer’s shoes in your niche and practice going through the buying experience as you browse books.
Ask yourself questions like what titles grab my attention and why? What descriptions grab my attention and why? What makes me want to buy a particular book?
Once you’ve sold a book, the selling doesn’t stop there.
Does the introduction captivate readers or put them to sleep?
Does the fiction novel start with an engaging hook that hooks your reader from the very beginning and keeps them engaged throughout the book?
Not Delivering Ongoing Value To Your Readers
Very few authors can achieve long-lasting success with only one book. And it’s highly unlikely you’re going to be the next Harper Lee! Besides, wouldn’t you rather be the next Nora Roberts, R.L. Stein or Dan Brown?
Although some authors dream of writing a book that generates thousands of dollars each month, successful authors know that it takes more than just one book to achieve financial stability.
Typically, a book is a gateway to other opportunities, such as speaking engagements, consulting services, and other books in a series.
Successful authors usually have a library of books in a particular niche to keep readers engaged and interested.
Additionally, struggling authors often launch a book but neglect to establish a relationship with their readers, failing to engage them through newsletters, blogs, or social media. This is mostly an issue for authors who see book publishing as merely a means of getting royalties.
While there is nothing wrong with hopping from one niche to another in the short term, it can become an issue if the author never firmly establishes a foundation in any particular niche.
To fix this mistake, having an email list is a must for authors.
You’ll use this regularly to keep readers aware of future book releases, ask them questions, offer them prizes for sharing your book, provide them more value, such as tips or on-release material and more.
This creates a deeper connection with your readers, making them more likely to support your future work and spread the word about you as an author.
Creating a book series is also an effective way to keep readers engaged with the characters and an ongoing story.
For non-fiction authors, the luxury of being self-published allows them to create books that are one problem, one solution in nature, tackling specific problems in-depth and offering other books to deal with different problems the readers might have.
If being a writer is a career, you should see authorship as a long-term business that continuously delivers value. When authors see some success, they shouldn’t get tempted to become complacent. They need to continuously publish new works and offer value to existing readers on their newsletter. The more revenue an author can generate per book, the more money they can take to invest in the marketing of that book, creating exponential growth.
Not Utilizing The Greatest Resource: Relationships
And finally, the biggest mistake so many struggling authors make is not utilizing their greatest resource.
I’m not referring to time or money. I’m talking about relationships.
While struggling authors see other authors and authorities as competitors, successful authors view them as companions.
Besides, the toxic mindset of scarcity, author versus author, leads to failure in the long run.
You need to reach out to other people in your niche and form relationships with as many as you can. You can cross-promote each other’s work.
The principle of service should be remembered, and the attitude that should be adopted is “what can I give” rather than “what can I get.”
The difference between a give-and-take attitude and a give-and-receive attitude is subtle but important.
With a give-and-take attitude, there is an expectation that the other person should do something for you, while with a give-and-receive attitude, you are offering something for the other person with a willingness to receive something in return, but not an expectation.
While there’s nothing wrong with purely transactional business relationships, it’s usually far better to simply focus on offering value and trusting that in some way, shape, or form, the value will be returned without making their generosity conditional.
Once the right attitude has been adopted, and you’ve proven yourself, you can reach out to experts or authorities to help promote your book.
Now, the challenge is that authorities are often busy, and if you don’t have a prior relationship with you, it can be difficult for them to take the time to help you out. However, if you are following the principle of giving rather than getting, then your attention needs to be on how you can help them out rather than how they can help you out.
This entire process is condensed down into the 4C’s that will grab their attention, create a genuine connection, and then inspire them to want to check out your work.
The Four C’s are a set of principles that can help authors connect with experts or authorities in their field and inspire them to promote your work.
- Compliment: Start by offering a genuine compliment about the person’s work. Be specific about what you appreciate and admire about them. This will grab their attention and help them see why you’ve chosen to reach out to them.
- Connection: Establish a connection with the authority by highlighting similarities between your work and theirs. This can be as simple as sharing a common interest or goal. This will help create a sense of camaraderie and mutual benefit.
- Contribution: Offer something of value to the authority, such as a free copy of your book or a guest post for their blog. This demonstrates that you’re not just looking to take from them, but that you’re willing to give as well.
- Call-to-action: End with a clear call-to-action that invites the authority to promote your work. Be specific about what you’re asking for and make it easy for them to say yes. For example, you could ask them to share your book with their followers or to write a review on their blog.
By following the Four C’s, authors can build genuine relationships with experts and authorities in their field, which can lead to greater exposure for their work and increased sales.
In the end, self-publishing can be a rewarding and fulfilling experience for authors who are willing to put in the work. By avoiding the mistakes discussed in this article and taking advantage of the many resources available to independent authors, you can take control of your publishing journey and create a book that reflects your unique voice and vision. So, keep pushing forward, stay true to your passion, and trust in yourself and your abilities. With determination and perseverance, you can achieve your dreams and find success as a self-published author.
