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I've written a couple of technical books, and then I've helped my wife grow her business as a USA Today best selling romance author. The biggest challenge here

I've written a couple of technical books, and then I've helped my wife grow her business as a USA Today best selling romance author. The biggest challenge here, to me, isn't writing the book or figuring out what tools to use, but it's marketing. Email lists, FB ads, etc. are really what drive the success or failure of your book. Nathan Barry's writing on this in Authority is my bible for that. Also, if we're talking tools, shout out to Leanpub. Love that platform, especially for developer books! EDIT: Nathan Barry doesn't specifically talk about FB Ads, so in terms of a marketing bible, I guess courses and private FB groups have helped us the most. This guy is actually the main goto for fiction authors: https://selfpublishingformula.com/ https://selfpublishingformula.com/

armenarmen 8y ago
Any specific thing from Nathan Barry?
- miles_matthias 8y ago
  Build up -- spend at least a month building a list of people interested in your book when it releases, tease them with sample chapters every few weeks. Imagine releasing and emailing 1k-5k people who want the book, getting a bunch of them to purchase, and having your rank on whatever platform you're on going up, along with some heavy ads.
- miles_matthias 8y ago
  Here's a direct link to Nathan Barry's book "Authority" https://nathanbarry.com/authority/ https://nathanbarry.com/authority/
  - armenarmen 8y ago
    Thanks!
burlesona 8y ago
I interviewed a romance author recently about her strategy for going from 30 to 30,000 sales, it was pretty interesting[1]. TLDR is build community with your readers to turn them into evangelizing super fans. Pretty much the same audience building strategies you use for early startups. Maybe you’ll get some ideas from the podcast :) [1]: https://howauthorswork.com/8ae47f49 https://howauthorswork.com/8ae47f49
- miles_matthias 8y ago
  Thanks! Yea, she's had a ton of awesome milestones, including multiple top 100 books on Amazon. The challenge now is figuring out the repeatable playbook for consistent high launches.
_Nocturnal 8y ago
> The biggest challenge here, to me, isn't writing the book or figuring out what tools to use, but it's marketing. Email lists, FB ads, etc. are really what drive the success or failure of your book. I've looked into creating a mailing list with MailChimp and/or its competitors, since I think it'd work great for my target niche. The thing that stopped me is that you need to provide your real name and location. Though I understand the reasoning, I'm publishing under a pseudonymous identity and do not wish to tie my real identity to it. Bummer.
- miles_matthias 8y ago
  We rent a box at the UPS store, and you can use a pen name.
- kukabynd 8y ago
  Have you checked out the self-hosted https://sendy.co https://sendy.co?

armenarmen 8y ago

Any specific thing from Nathan Barry?

miles_matthias 8y ago
Build up -- spend at least a month building a list of people interested in your book when it releases, tease them with sample chapters every few weeks. Imagine releasing and emailing 1k-5k people who want the book, getting a bunch of them to purchase, and having your rank on whatever platform you're on going up, along with some heavy ads.
miles_matthias 8y ago
Here's a direct link to Nathan Barry's book "Authority" https://nathanbarry.com/authority/ https://nathanbarry.com/authority/
- armenarmen 8y ago
  Thanks!

burlesona 8y ago

I interviewed a romance author recently about her strategy for going from 30 to 30,000 sales, it was pretty interesting[1]. TLDR is build community with your readers to turn them into evangelizing super fans. Pretty much the same audience building strategies you use for early startups. Maybe you’ll get some ideas from the podcast :) [1]: https://howauthorswork.com/8ae47f49 https://howauthorswork.com/8ae47f49

miles_matthias 8y ago
Thanks! Yea, she's had a ton of awesome milestones, including multiple top 100 books on Amazon. The challenge now is figuring out the repeatable playbook for consistent high launches.

_Nocturnal 8y ago

> The biggest challenge here, to me, isn't writing the book or figuring out what tools to use, but it's marketing. Email lists, FB ads, etc. are really what drive the success or failure of your book. I've looked into creating a mailing list with MailChimp and/or its competitors, since I think it'd work great for my target niche. The thing that stopped me is that you need to provide your real name and location. Though I understand the reasoning, I'm publishing under a pseudonymous identity and do not wish to tie my real identity to it. Bummer.

miles_matthias 8y ago
We rent a box at the UPS store, and you can use a pen name.
kukabynd 8y ago
Have you checked out the self-hosted https://sendy.co https://sendy.co?