How to Create a Popular Non-Fiction Amazon Bestseller

Who wants to be the next Steve Scott? You and I are still trying to routinely crack the bestseller ranks on Amazon. Steve has done this several times.

How he did it takes some sleuthing. How you could do it better takes even more sleuthing.

But that's why this blog is here. I do this work and write it up to save you time.

You deserve to get a 6-figure income from your books like Scott did. Providing you do the work you need to.

Today's breakthrough is how to improve the quality of your book - which is what Scott has been working on for some time. Better quality books sell more and better and longer. You want your book to sell well right off (which anyone with a list can accomplish) and then continue to sell after that.

What makes books sell more and better

As you've been following this blog, you'll note that I've published several dozen-dozen books. And by this (and being Scot-Irish frugal) I 've achieved financial freedom and fired my last boss.

These books were published as tests of the ebook publishing model. Those tests showed me what books would do on their own with the only marketing consisting a good title, good cover, good description, and decent price point. Nothing else.

Again, I was able to live off what I made just from these tests. This is how the system works just on volume publishing alone.

These books were mostly public domain (PD) and private-licensed rights (PLR) books. They ran the gamut, but typically fell down into the usual curve for sales:

• Most didn't sell.
• Many sold a few books a month.
• A small few sold several books a week.
• A couple became regular bestsellers on all platforms.

When I was dissecting Steve Scott's success recently, I started making a checklist of publishing that I use.

Then I ran across this quality point. While Steve somewhat regrets writing an ebook about cranking out a new ebook every 21 days, he never says what writing a quality book consists of - no matter how long it takes.

How to Write a Quality Book (and sell longer).  

My book-publishing tests prove a single point - the consistent best sellers are decent enough quality that readers buy them routinely.

Those with crappy titles or covers or indifferent descriptions (or priced too high) sell poorly. Look on Amazon at the bottom of their lists and you'll see this far too often. Or take "habit stacking" (which built Scott's empire) and you'll see the wannabes at the bottom which sell a fraction of a book each week - and you won't see the ones that never sell at all.

But what keeps them selling after that point is how well they were written. Quality.

Amazon pushes up the books that routinely sell and pushes down the ones that don't. This is why they are known as the "ebook graveyard." Just like any bookstore - they're in it to make profits (although somehow, Amazon continues to run at a loss each year - like the Hollywood movie industry. Taxes, probably.)

The books which sell routinely are well written. Many people say so, but more than that, my book sales say so. PD books generally do better than PLR books (depending on what distributor) - and PD Classic Fiction sells better than others. Why? Because they are evergreen bestsellers - they were well written even centuries ago and still appeal.

Scott's success was with non-fiction. And while he covers the points on how to get good titles, covers, and descriptions (in general terms) he doesn't say what a well-written book consists of - other than it needs to solve the problem area or answer the common questions in a quick, and precise method.

There is more to it than that.

Look up a book called "The Story Grid", written by a 20-year veteran of editing, Shawn Coyne. He lays out what makes a fiction work into a real page-turner. And he also does this for non-fiction as well (but not in such detail.)

He says there are four "silo's" of non-fiction out there:

Academic:

These are essays/books that are written for and read by a very focused readership.These groups of readers are clearly defined, but small in number. As Seth Godin would say, these are Tribal readers dedicated to very specific passions/professions. The narrative form of the writing is far more about “presenting the findings” than it is about entertaining the reader. The assumption of the writer of academic work is that her readership is absolutely engrossed by the subject matter itself and so really just wants to get the skinny on what it is the writer discovered or what the writer’s particular argument is. These readers don’t need to be spoon-fed the previous data or history of the art. They just want to know the innovative stuff.
...

How-To:
These are generally prescriptive books “for the trade audience.” What that means is that these books are written for the general Joe who wants to learn the best way to plant his garden, without having to enroll at Penn State’s Agricultural school. Or a general Jane who wants to learn how to change the oil in her old Volkswagen Beetle without going to a mechanic’s trade school.
...

Narrative Non-Fiction:
This category has exploded in the past half century...
It’s completely Story based. That is, ...the writer/journalist collects the usual data involved in reporting a story. But instead of just presenting the traditional Who, What, Where, When and How? out of the old-school reporter’s toolbox, New Journalists focused on the Why? something happened....
What Narrative Nonfiction allows is for that subjective point of view (the writer/journalist) to argue his case. But the journalist can’t just “make things up.” He has to present the “evidence,” the details of the reporting in support of his particular point of view. But more importantly, he can’t just make declarative statements like an academic.
He has to tell a Story…like a novelist or short story writer would.
....

The Big Idea Book:
The Big Idea Book draws from all three of the nonfiction categories above and when one succeeds, it’s capable of satisfying readers of all three too. Academics appreciate the research cited to support the Big Idea. How-To readers take away actionable steps that they believe can better their lives. And Narrative Nonfiction readers are captivated by the storytelling.
It is Academic in its rigor. There is a crystal clear argument being made in a Big Idea book that the author builds and supports in much the same manner that an academic writer/researcher would. That is, he is making a case for demystifying a particular natural phenomenon and will support his conclusions with the applicable data etc.
It is prescriptive for the layman like a How-To book. The writer of the Big Idea book writes for the non-expert, not the specialist. He also contends that there are real world applications of his Big Idea that can change the lives of his readers. So the implied promise is that after you’ve read the Big Idea book, you will have the tools to apply the knowledge imparted in much the same was as you would be able to apply the principles of square foot gardening.
With varying degrees of success, it uses narrative nonfiction storytelling to impart a deeper theme/controlling idea into the work than just “how to use this knowledge and get a great tomato harvest.”

Steve Scott only wrote the in the How-To style. He never broke into the far more popular narrative or the legendary Big Idea. 

Scott recommended the time-worn "index card" method for book writing:

• Research and compile the common questions or problems in a profitable niche.
• Research and compile the answers/solutions to these.
• Put the questions/problems onto index cards, along with any ideas for titles and chapter headings.
• Organize these cards into some sort of logical order in a stack.
• Make an outline for these.
• Fill in between the lines with the data you know.
• Add an introduction and front-matter, along with back-matter.
• Come up with a catchy title, an attractive cover, plus a benefit-bulleted description.
• Publish.

Of course, there's a little more than that, but those are the broad strokes. This system works for this How-To type of non-fiction book.

Making even more money by writing better

But if we want to get even more income, we need to raise the bar.

What is makes narrative non-fiction sell well?

Basically, you need to tell a story - yours, the reader's, or someone else's. Coyne says that it has the same breakdown as fiction. Every part, from the story outline down to the smallest piece all have these in common:

1) Inciting Incident

• Caual
• Coincidence 

2) Progressive Complication

• Active Turning Point
• Relevatory Turning Point 

3) Crisis

• The Best Bad Choice
• Irreconcilable Goods

4) Climax
5) Resolution

And a bigger bunch of editor-speak I've never heard.

Here's what all this means (with apologies to the classics):

• Problem: Something bad happened
• Worsens: And it got worse - something the hero/ine did or discovers
• Choice: What do the hero/ine chooses – between two bads or two goods
• Action: Here's what the hero/ine did
• Results: Here's what they got out of it

And there's more to this (see Coyne's book, and go read your favorite fiction again with this in mind.)

That's the simplicity to any story ever told. You can go further with this, like Joseph Campbell's Hero's Journey, or just KISS for now.

The How-to actions to take can come in on the last two points - or you tell an anecdote about how someone solved it, and then come out with your recipe of steps to take.

Using emotion in your text

This is the next one to master. Any copywriter knows that people decide emotionally and justify rationally. If you're going to carry people along with your story, you're going to have to involve them.

One of the all-time great copywriters was a guy named Eugene Schwartz. His single book sells for hundreds in hardback where you can find a copy. He recommends a book by Walter S. Campbell called "Writing Non-Fiction". Here are my highlighted notes from the relevant first two chapters of that book:

Fiction must have some facts and ideas to justify the emotion it offers. Non-fiction must induce some emotion in order to maintain interest in the facts and ideas which it offers.

The non-fiction writer has another, more difficult but more profitable method, which consists in arousing emotions about things not hitherto considered exciting by his reader. Here lies the true opportunity of the writer of non-fiction.

He must present fact with passion.

If you propose to write upon a subject in a factual, coldblooded manner, without permitting your own enthusiasm for your material to saturate it and so interest your reader, you will be obliged, if you publish, to write on subjects about which the reader is already excited.

But once you have acquired a platform and a reputation, you will find that, if you believe in your ideas and in the value of your facts, you will wish for a larger audience. Indeed, if what you have to say is important, it will be your duty to reach a larger audience.

[The non-fiction writer] has for his public practically all literate mankind. He has for his subject practically everything that is known and everything that can be guessed about the universe in which his readers live. His success will depend upon his ability to choose his subject wisely and to find a reader who can be brought to take an interest in it.

Writing non-fiction is essentially the problem of rousing and maintaining the reader’s interest in something outside himself.
This general subject-matter may be anything, provided the author loves it, feels at home in it, is interested enough in it to learn all he can about it, and to take the pains to make his reader enjoy it too.

The author who commands such a field of human interest and uses it consistently also has the advantage of a steady market for readers who like that sort of thing. They will remember him as the purveyor of stories about that subject-matter, and will look out for his work, knowing that they can always depend upon him to please them. 

This subject may be compared to the grain of sand which gets into an oyster and forms the irritating nucleus of a pearl. It is seldom that the author chooses it; rather, it chooses him, inhabits him, and may remain with him throughout life. Every piece of work he turns out has or lacks quality according to the degree in which this intimate subject appears in it.

It appears that the intimate subject is, as it were, the soul of the author’s work, while the subject-matter is only the flesh and blood. Both should belong and work together, if the work is to be a masterpiece.

In non-fiction, the emotion is that of the writer. That is why it is so necessary that you write about something that interests and excites you. For where your task is to serve your materials hot, you will not and cannot succeed, if there is no fire in you. You must always write of what is cooking. Your reader will not accept anything served cold.

Probably, it will be best not to worry too much about your intimate subject, particularly after you have discovered what it is. Rather, let your mind dwell upon the general subject-matter, dream about that, and you may find the intimate subject taking hold of those raw materials, shaping them to its own purpose, and making them go along without trouble.

Between Coyne and Campbell's books, we have the core of how to write narrative stories that will be popular (meaning: sell well) and then result in continuing passive income from here on out.

You also see in this the key idea that Scott followed - finding an "intimate subject" which remains with you and helps you find many outlets through several titles. There's your "catalog" and that rising tide lifts all your boats.

That, then brings you right back around to using - and improving - on Scott's methods to create your own catalog of bestselling books.

How to mix and match to get the title your audience wants. 

Of course, you don't have to change anything you're doing.

But let's just say that you're using that index card method for writing How-To books.

First step would be to start using more emotion in your copy. Search for Power Words, particularly on CoSchedule's site (and don't forget to test your ebook title on their Headline Analyzer.)

After that, start keeping track of anecdotes and stories as you search for problem-solutions and question-answers. This will help you personalize your copy and incorporate these Problem|Worsens|Choice|Action|Result steps.

Once you get in habit of getting all these points in - down to even the subsections of your blog post, then it will become a regular habit in your writing and you'll be able to move onto writing Big Idea titles.

(Approach: just as I recommend blogging your books, the Big Idea could be taking your books and editing them against the theme - Campbell's "intimate subject" - and putting them all together in your own "Tipping Point" or "Future Shock" book.)

Where to from here?

There are still a few technical details to iron out - but the above is the key research I did to ramp up my next books to be regular sellers on Amazon. (And if they sell well there, they should sell well everywhere.)

I'm in the middle of a checklist for publishing, taking my tips from Scott and refining these to be even more effective.

When it's ready, I'll let you know (should be available as early as this afternoon.)

Then you can get started on your own - or revise it as you see fit.

After all, this isn't a Gospel, it's only what works for me - your mileage will definitely vary.

Back to the grind for me.

Your actions to take now:

• Leave a comment on whatever you're thinking right now.
• Make sure your subscribed above so you don't miss an update.
• Join the no-cost membership at livesensical.com

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How I Was Wrong About Marketing (Case Study13)

And this happens more than I care to admit.

I was wrong, wrong, wrong.

Again, it's conventional wisdom that I swallowed years ago and has been an unshakeable, concrete, locked-down, Gospel truth in book publishing.

And it was wrong, wrong, wrong.

What was that wrong datum?

• You write the book from your inspiration, edit an hone it, get a fantastic cover done up, write and hone a fascinating description - and then either get a publisher to print it and distribute it, or self-publish and self-distribute it. And hope for the best. Meanwhile, then just get back to your writing until you have the next 3-5 books in that series ready - and run them through. 
• Once you have a series of books on sale (the first one perennially at .99 or free) then they all start taking off. (Then you start the next series.)
  

What is the correct datum?

• While you're researching your bliss to see how you can help people improve their lives with the value you know you can provide, you build your audience and get their input on what should be in that book. You write some of it and get a few trusted individuals to weigh in on it. Then you correct that section or part, get their and other's feedback, correct it, rinse, repeat. Then you write the next chapter, section or part and do that whole sequence again. Finally, you self-publish it and self-distribute it - announcing pre-release and low first week pricing, etc. to that audience.
• Then you start the next book and run it through as above.
  

What's the difference?

• The second wins because you are asking the audience about their concerns and they are helping you write the book. They are vested in that book and every book after that point. And every following book continues to build your audience.
• The first idea loses, because you remain anonymous to your audience and have to hope you got it right as far as what they want.
  
  

Do you get this?

I hope so.

You build your audience first and get them into a membership (doesn't have to be paid.) This allows you to interact with them and get them to help you write that book, and the next, and the next, and so on.

That first, wrong approach is built on statistics. Those statistics are built on the 97/3 rule - which states most people (97%) would rather lemming their way through life instead of finding what really works. 3% will question everything that comes across their plate until they find the underlying system which makes the whole scene make sense. Then they act on what they find.

That workable system they just found might be such a paradigm shift that they then change huge parts of their lives - or, if they've been frugal and lean, they've been putting the smaller changes in place as they find them and it won't be such a major shift.

What I'm saying here...

...is that the entire publishing world-view is upside down.

Books are not print-only, and they aren't print-plus-ebook, plus-maybe-audiobook.

Books are simply containers for a set of ideas. Those ideas might be best communicated as movies (some books wind up on the big screen or straight to DVD.) Some books are best verbally produced and wind up podcast. Some books are sung in multiple tracks on a Long-Play album, or as short singles. Some books are never more than presentations and live speeches.

Many books can and should be all of the above.

But all books start out with an audience. In fact, the audience-experience inspires the books, nurtures the book, and finally brings the book to life. In some instances, such as religious or inspirational/philosophical texts - people actually live the book.

And we all use stories to understand our lives, by finding other's stories and comparing our own life story through theirs. That is how marketing works, and actually is the only effective way to market that doesn't leave money on the table (and piss off about 80-90 percent of everyone who didn't buy.)

Your book is a performance.
It's a story that people should want to hear. But you have to perform it in front of an audience and get their reaction. (This is how Mark Twain wrote his books later in life - to his family and their children, then he'd go and correct them if they didn't get the expected response.)

Once you have your audience reaction, then you correct what's needed until you get a satisfactory reaction to your audience. Ultimately, this winds up as a book.

The wrong datum is to write a book and hope enough people buy it.

What does this all mean, now?

It means I'm done with this, because that Marketing Spreadsheet was back-to-front.

Here's what it should look like:

Site Setup
  Domain  Hosting  Analytics*  Mobile Template  Legal pages  Opt-in  Membership backend  IFTTT*
Market Research
  Keyword phrases  Alexa Demographics  1st Customer Avatar  2nd Customer Avatar
Book Research
  Area narrow-down  Theme
Book Landing Page  
Blog (on Membership site)
A/V (embedded on blog post)
  Audio (podcast)  Transcript (PDF) Presentation (PDF)  Video
Synnd Campaigns       
  Video  Bookmarking  Social News  Twitter
Doc-Sharing       
  Slideshare  Scribd  Doc-Stoc  Gdrive (public)
Video  
  Synnd
Audio   
  Archive.org  Soundcloud
Cover Art     
  Pinterest  Flickr  G+ (public)
Text Book Versions
  PDF  epub  mobi   
Lulu 
  epub  PDF  tradepb  GlobalReach   
Distributors
  Sellfy  Payhip  Google  iTunes  Nook  Kobo EspressoBM
Amazon Ed. 
LP Update 
Book Sites     
  OpenLibrary  Library Thing  Goodreads
Audiobook 
Course 
Other Promotion 
  Bittorrent Bundle
Affiliate Sales Bundles (under testing)
  Distribly Scubbly JVZoo MyCommerce PaySpree Click2Sell DigiResults BlueSnap

*Analytics
  Google Analytics  Webmaster Tools  Feedburner  G+ page  Facebook Page  Analytics.twitter.com
*IFTTT
  (See post on this.)

You see the difference with this new concept?

1. You set up your site (or preferably pay someone to set it up right - you don't want the headache of maintaining a site, believe me.) You also set up your IFTTT, since these ultimately go to social media which each have their own tribes. Of course, it has an opt-in to get members to follow you.
2. Your book research tells you generally what people want, so you start blogging this.
3. The feedback you get will tell you if you're on the right or wrong track. Meanwhile, you are assembling data which can be put into your free membership - and promoted to people so they can join your list to get access.
4. Every post is syndicated in as many formats as possible, everywhere that will accept it. And you push social signals at that content so people can find it.
5. When you have cover art, it's posted everywhere for feedback as well. And Synnd.
6. Once you have enough blog posts for a book (yes this works for fiction as well as non-fiction) then you fine tune it (with a few very trusted audience members) and craft the book.
7. At that point, the whole self-publishing scene kicks in.
8. The only marketing after that is to assemble free and paid bundles and see if you want to mess with Affiliate sales.

What's up now with this Case Study?

I'm still going to get the epubs out there. I'll publish them to iTunes and Google, where they will simply take the books without my having to do a lot of hand-holding to get them accepted.
I'm also going to set up links on their landing pages, and embed Payhip and  also port to Sellfy so it shows up on my Facebook page.

Then I take a hiatus from this blog while I get my membership up and running.

The next podcast will be from that site - and all these podcasts will be transferred there (so you can find them again, easily (I'll just change the RSS feed, you won't have to adjust the dials or anything. Happy?)

What you can takeaway from this

We're not done yet, although it may be awhile before you hear from me on this particular subject again. I'm pushing the backlogged podcasts out to you, but very minimally. (No downloadable PDF transcript.)

We're going to eat our own dog food and get the sequence straight.

When I have that membership set up, you'll be invited, for sure.

It's all very exciting for me, since this has narrowed down my bliss to a very fine pointed target. It will become apparent when you see my membership go live.

Until then - luck to us all!

- - - -

Ensure you are opt-ed in above to catch the next white-knucked, cliff-hanging episode of Selling Your Book Online.

See you next time...

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How to Build an Ecourse and What to Have In it.

(Photo: Ruschi)

Building an online course is perfect for giving enough value to get people onto your list (and into your membership.)

That's the key point -giving away real value. Cheap stuff doesn't cut it.

This is another post in our series of outlining a case study of how to publish and sell books.

The logic of an ecourse is that

1. You want to invite people to your list/membership (see #5 and #6 for why).
2. You need to give them something incredibly valuable to begin with
3. So they give you their email
4. So you can give them more valuable stuff
5. So they become your captive audience
6. And will finance your writing, as well as help you edit it into what they want.

You build an ecourse so that most people possible can use it.

This mistake is common.

People like me who live in the boonies don't have free broadband and so videos and audio just suck bandwidth - which we pay through the nose for to begin with.

PDF's on the other hand, take little time to download or read - and you're giving live links they can follow whenever they want, even years later.

Rule: On every lesson of your ecourse:

• Text
• Audio
• Video
• PDF transcript
• Live links to valuable material and your related books.

See how this goes?

They can read the text, but would get fascinated with the video - or download the audio to listen to later. Same for the PDF.

Of course, they get the original lesson, but that just takes them to the web page on your site.

Rule: Link to your own stuff everywhere

You do give a full lesson by email (few things are more frustrating than having to open yet another browser tab/window - it tends to break your unwritten promise of giving immediate value.)

You do include a link and come-on pitch before the lesson.

And also another pitch and link after the lesson, maybe with a video still image to entice them further. (Did I mention free downloads?!?)

Your PDF has at least as many links as your web page has.

The reason to embed your content - get more authority links

YouTube and Slideshare are known for how much Google loves them.

The funny part is when someone comes to your page, this gives a "view" to all your embeds and raises their ranking on that site.

Meanwhile, those media files have your link in their descriptions, so they are linking to your site - every time someone views those media file pages, some link love goes your way.

And Search Engine Marketing is another term for "book discovery."

What else to have on that lesson page?

You probably don't want to overdo it, but having your book cover and links to the main distributors (as well as a way to buy it directly from you) isn't necessarily overboard.

Links out to the main distributors are mostly to give your book some link authority, so that it will move up that distributor's list.

Should a lesson page remain private? 

Technically, no. Unless it's a paid course. Most of the time, people can't guess what the link for the preceding or following lesson is, so having search engines able to put your lesson in their search results just means that it's another chance to get more people subscribing.

This means you need an opt-in for the ecourse itself at the bottom of the page and in the sidebar - with a disclaimer of something like, "New to this ecourse? Subscribe today and get [benefit] - Instant Access!"

This could then mean more subscribers.

More to come

What we've covered here is really only the broad strokes. The value you put in a lesson is what solutions it has for the readers problems.

How to build a video from parts would be the next logical step. Hint: you start with text, create audio and a PDF from that, then combine these into a video. That technical end is a bit much for this overlong blog post.

Subscribe via email or RSS to ensure you don't miss an article.

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• Day 19 - Slideshare and Videos
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The first year's fiction bestsellers study list is released!

Writers' Club Homework Assignment List

Relax - I didn't mean to give you a flashback to college days (well, maybe just a little...)

I was compiling the most popular classic fiction from Goodreads, Feedbooks, and Gutenberg.org - and came up with this list. The tie-breaker was Goodreads in all cases, since they have people wanting to read a title in both paperback and hardcover versions - so this gave an extra oomph to certain books.

Otherwise, it was your usual popularity contest.

Why only public domain works? Because this gives us a better view without current fads incorporated, or certain fan clubs which can skew results. (Dead authors don't usually have active fan clubs populating the social media.)

Author Vs. Publisher - Creating Your Stable of Books

Stigma Be Damned - Creating a Steady Income by Publishing

One of the funniest "stigmas" I ran into in researching for "Just Publish! Ebook Creation for Indie Authors" was that there was some emotional baggage with publishing your own books. I'd been doing it for years before I read that, so found that comment rather droll. (And later created a satire based on this and other lies, called "J'APE: Just Another Publicity Excuse" - a free download available almost everywhere.)

Similarly, there is a "stigma" to do with republishing public domain works. Public Domain is where the legal copyright has expired for a book. Thanks to Disney, modern copyrights can be extended indefinitely. There are various limits to these, but as a general rule, anything published before 1923 is fair game (Wikipedia has a fairly exhaustive description.)

The great part about public domain works are a couple:

1. You don't have to re-invent the wheel - or re-write it.
2. If the work was any good, there has already been substantial marketing for that artist. 

In terms of Internet Marketing (SEO) you'll find that there is a niche for any book, and both the title and author are keywords. Adding public domain books to the value delivered from your site is then a no-brainer - it's just a matter of aligning these products to the overall theme and use you are providing to improve people's lives.

The only drawback is in trying to misrepresent the book. Getting a new copyright is simple - you just have to add value to the original. Again, this is the scene of improving the value of the book, not just creating a rip-off. Giving credit and building on the original (as in modern "mash-ups") is valued more than the original in many cases. Because the value you are providing is enabling a new generation of readers to find these classic works.

I've gone over a complete set of editing tools in "Just Publish!" which can all be downloaded for free. With a little work, you can take many of the books found on the web in various formats and convert them. One of the best tools for doing the rough conversion is Calibre. 

Calibre isn't a perfect tool - but it will take almost any book which it can read and then extract the text and images to make a new version. What I've found is that you'll need to extract it to HTML if it has images, but you can open that or the RTF version in LibreOffice (OpenOffice) for editing. (Again "Just Publish!" has more details on this - and has a video embedded on that page to help you.)

Once you have the technical sequence down pat, you can then free yourself to concentrate on how to re-market this book as part of your own valuable contribution to our world-culture.

The caveat is to not spend incredible amounts of time simply reformatting books and re-posting them. Each of them should be re-launched properly (which I've just gone over in the latest "Just Publish!" revision.)

The point is that there is a wealth of data out there. Just because you didn't write it or think it up originally is no reason not to do a new "mash-up" as part of the stable of goods you are offering to your own client-list to improve their lives. 

As usual, the only real limits you'll find are those you've agreed to. Life is meant to be lived. Fiction is meant to be enjoyed as entertainment. Limiting yourself with fiction is a form of living entertainment which may or may not make you rich or even give you a living.

Check it out for yourself. Your choice, as usual. 

Good Hunting!

PS. You can see an upcoming project I have going of re-publishing the 25 all-time bestselling classic fiction works as a tool for authors to train by studying the proven Masters.

Learning to write by studying bestseller fiction books. Novel? No - classics.

(photocredit: Amusafija)

So begins yet another writing adventure.

Found a great book, via Feedbooks, of a classic - "The Technique of the Mystery Story." This gave me a complete inspiration to help writers learn to write better. This came up earlier when I was researching for "Just Publish! Ebook Creation for Indie Authors." During that, I created a great tool for fiction writers, "Becoming the Fiction Storyteller of Your Dreams" - just to help people overcome writing difficulties and study up on how storytelling worked in its basics. 

It came to me in studying Stephen King's "On Writing," that writers should be reading daily. The next problem is what to read. Louis La'mour is understood to have studied the classics to perfect his own writing style. 

Lobbing around Feedbooks gave me another insight - the classic and still-popular bestsellers. 

What if these were assembled into a bi-weekly email delivery of the most popular classics. Every other week should allow you to get through whatever was sent (on average, anyway) and give options of getting a download version for your smartphone/tablet, and/or a paperback. Whatever you find easier to use. 

The variety of styles and genres should get a writer well-rounded on their studies.

A funny thing was that in comparing the most popular book on Feedbooks, Gutenberg.org, and Goodreads - I found something like 4 years worth of books to deliver on a bi-weekly basis. 

Heckuva lot of work, though.

But you're worth it, aren't you?

Here's the page I'm starting for this. Turns out I never got a page for that "Becoming a Fiction Storyteller..."  So this new page on bestseller fiction books will help you with that. All set up to list the books as I get them polished up.

Just for you - and as well... wait for it... this gives yet another book in the making. Something along the lines of "Becoming a Mystery Writer". Might even have to do a course on it's own for that one. 

Just sayin'.

Related articles

• The first year's fiction bestsellers study list is released!
• Update: New Writers' Club Selection - Make money with bestselling classics
• Train Your Inner Writer - Buy and Read Bestseller Fiction Books
• Sales for 'Fifty Shades' reach trilogy 100M copies
• How a Study of Fiction Bestsellers Teach Business Savvy
• Why study classic fiction? To improve your real-world results.

Getting Your Book Shared - Social Media Buttons

Part of Discovery is Getting Your Readers to Share

Let's face it: your book isn't going to go viral if it sits around in people's ereaders and no one ever hears about it. And reviews may be nice, but people read because someone tells them about it. 

At the end of your book, right after you 1) told your reader to leave a review, and 2) gave them a link to your site for more information, you then need to tell them to share your book. 

This then prompted new research, because the buttons out there are usually ensconced in some sort of javascript, which isn't supported by the EPUB2 standard. (You can get away with it on some iBookstore submissions, but why all that effort?)

The answer came from an unlikely source - a post on an Opera blog by Daniel Davis. He's done all the research to make this happen.

I'm doing some further tests, but this is how they would look in the tail end of the book "J'APE: Just Another Publicity Excuse"

Share J'APE:

Obviously, there are more steps to be done to make links which will work right inside an epub. But this is on the right track. (Note that each have their own idiosyncrasies, so you're going to spend some time getting this right.) But interestingly, LibreOffice (OpenOffice) doesn't have the problems of having to convert your text over to code - but converts this for you. It's taking some tweaking in Sigil to make it work right, apparently linked images don't port well (haven't tried these before.)

One point to this: use an URL shortener so you can track the "hits" which are coming from your ebook links. And of course, unless you are publishing strictly and forever only on Amazon, they should go to your book's web-page so you can also get a chance for the person to opt-in to your list...

Luck with this - luck to us all.

3 Views on Publishing - To Hell with Authorities

There are 3 views on (self-)publishing - leaving out those who don't publish at all.

1. Traditional publishing, which is top-heavy and expensive and almost impossible to get a contract with - and has agents to take a percentage of your already low royalties.

2. Guru's and perfectionists who hand out advice which can't be followed by more than a few. They advise to spend money you don't have to achieve standards which are so high to also be nearly impossible to meet (again, without a huge social following, lots of money to hire outside help, and a suck-up attitude.)

3. People who just honestly want to tell their story.

The first two don't really want the competition of everyone and their brother producing their story.

And so they arrange all manner of blocks in their way. Most of these have to do with the age old traps of  Approval, Control, Security, and The Club.

What self-publishing has done is to make it possible for everyone to have their book, or several, or as many as they want.

And there is room for as many as want to do this. For the long tail stretches to infinity, but there are only a few who can stand on the short head and stay there.

This is what the first two categories are based on. And they are each incredibly defensive of their positions, because they know that they are trying to balance on a narrow ledge which is crumbling.

What I have objected to all this time is pretending to give help, but instead simply raise artificial barriers to anyone else actually succeeding in this. There's a "bestseller" out there right now where the authors have spent a great deal of money to get PR and all sorts of interviews in order to spread their view of how to self-publish.

Unfortunately, few others can follow their footsteps simply.

That's the rub.

I've been trying to follow their advice and at every single turn, I've found that it doesn't work.

Sure, I've been able to publish over 4 dozen books on Lulu which never really earned me much more than some pin money. But they were honest works. Now that I've moved over into ebooks, the sales of these same books have increased tremendously and look to soon be able to cover all my expenses in these area - meaning I'll start showing a profit.

There is a point where you simply have to let go of things which don't work. Especially where a person (or several) just keep giving bad advice.

Instead, a person has to listen to themselves and do what they know is right. Right for them, not someone else.

Look all the interviews in the world don't mean a thing. Being on the NYT bestseller list doesn't mean a thing either. Neither, as it's proving out, does being a "bestseller" on Amazon - as that system is rigged as well.

The key point a person has to live with is how many people they 've helped, whether they feel good about all they've done for others, how they sleep at night.

I could care less about celebrities, whether they are social media moguls or elected politicians. Please just keep them off my lines. They don't help me get or keep a job, they don't help me raise my beef cattle, or fix fences, or bring rain for our drought, or help my grass grow.

In short - they're worthless to me.

Much like what passes for "news" these days. You can turn them off and live simpler, more peaceful lives.

So I am.

- - - -

The bottom line was writing a book the way it was "supposed" to be done instead of how I was needed to write it. So I quit that online community which was just a suck-up to that celebrity, and "uncircled" that guy so I never had to hear from him again.

There are people who are interested in hearing my viewpoint on things. And those are the people I'll deal with.

That is the actual way you write your own story - in a series of essays. It doesn't matter if your language is good, or your style is good, or your headings and hyphens and periods are in the right places.

It matters that you get your story out so others can benefit from the lessons you've learned.

And that is all there is to writing a book.

Sales Page for "Just Publish!" (as it's now known...)

(Thought you'd want to see the blurb which is previewing on my site right now, but won't show up on Amazon until the book wraps up.)

"Just Publish! Ebook Creation for Indie Authors"

Learn how to write, design, format, upload, and sell your own book for low cost or free. 

(And that includes non-fiction and fiction self-publishers.)

New Release!

You probably have a story inside you that's just busting to get out. Most people do.

And the premise for here is that you don't have to buy or pay for anything in order to get your story written, published, and selling online.

Learn the 3 Parts to eBook Publishing

1. How to write a book - painlessly, effortlessly, earning the satisfaction and pride you deserve.
2. How to publish your book - without the costs and delays recommended by the current "experts".
3. How to sell a book online - make your book discoverable and sell, not only on Amazon, but on iBookstore, B&N, Kobo, and everywhere else.

And all for no more than you already have at hand.

Solve the key factors which have tried to keep you from publishing your story.

• You want to get Control over your own book and your own life - while others only want to control you for their own purposes.
• You want to get Approval for your own efforts - not pay money for someone else to approve your work "through channels", which can add years you can't afford to lose.
• You want to have the Security of running your own writing-publishing-selling business, and knowing how it will turn out at every step.
• And you want to Join the group of successful Independent Authors who control their own higher royalties and income.
  

Tools you will find inside this guide:

• Develop writing habits you can use for life
  
• Learn precise, proved tips and shortcuts to save time and money
  
• Get real certainty how the real "million-book-sellers" have made their own success - and how you can duplicate this starting today!
  
• Discover secrets to formatting your Amazon descriptions to rocket sales and pass competitors in their tracks.
  
• Get access to the entire Publishing Success Blueprint from start to finish
  
• Find how to open additional distribution lines for even more income!

A Personal Word from the Author

I've been publishing books successfully for years before ebooks became popular. But I was never satisfied with the sales I was getting. So I buckled down and started learning how online book marketing really worked. This took me through half a hundred "expert" ebooks, thousands of web-pages, and countless real-world tests.

I figured out how to do this for little or nothing more than what I already had. I found out you don't have to have fancy equipment or programs to create your books. And that time-consuming Social Media and expensive advertising doesn't sell your books - but applying these discoveries will.

In my tests, I started routinely getting sales from books which had sat dormant for years,You don't have to spend the months I did to work this all out. Or buy all the books I have just to compile their hidden methods. Now this one book tells you all these secrets, so you can get your booksales rocketing, too.

Looks like final title - "publish ebook" as key keyword

"Just Publish! Ebook Creation for Indie Authors"

"Learn how to write, design, format, upload, and sell your own book for low cost or free."

- - - -

Of course, this means a new cover.

And I'm having to figure on a 3rd go-round on editing, whether I've been a bit hard-boiled on this (probably not, I've got a bit passionate about spreading effective truth instead of trying to instant money or celebrity out of this).

And if you have other ideas about this title, or what I should do with the book - leave a comment. Otherwise, feel free to +1 the page...

;)

Closing Chapter just arrived...

Chapter 5 – Your Book

As I mentioned in the beginning, there is probably a book in you, working to get out.
Most of us have a story there. One report has this at 70% - which would include you.
What I haven't covered up to this point is why you need to let that book out, why you need to give it life.
And this all goes into a ton of studies that you probably don't have time for.
The bottom line is that people appear to improve their own lives by comparing their story with others. And that is how we learn, how we improve, how we define who we are and what our progress has been.
It's not really in these things we have around us, all these cars and clothes and buildings and – stuff.
It's who we really are right there inside of us all. In our heart.
For all our differences, we have that one live spark within. And that spark has no height, weight, color, or shape.
But it has a life.
It's an idea. The one which motivates us to do great things, or just suffer through all of life's indignities in order that our children or their children could have a better life than we have.
It's the sum of all man's highest and deepest adventures exploring this planet.
It's in the eyes of every mother or father who sees their newborn – or any newborn brought into this world.
For that that spark is in them, too. They each are born with an idea, a story.
And their story is formed by watching the stories which go on around them, for their whole life.
Some of us are lucky enough to be able to hear stories around us and re-tell them with our own “improvements” as to plot, character, setting. This is called “gifted” by some, and personally it may seem a curse at times.
But that is the writer's story. The storyteller's story.
Your story may be singular instead of plural. There might only be one.
And it might not be a long one. It could be a single word.
But more than likely, it's not a blank sheet.
Imagine, for just a bit, that you were able to sit and talk with an old, best friend. Nothing to do that day. Just sit and talk about whatever came up.
And this friend was really interested in just what you had to say that day. He or she was just there to listen.
So you began talking. And in those words, you told all of your hopes and dreams and aspirations. You told of your pains, your sorrows, your darkest times that had been endured.
And as you talked, the weight of this world came off your shoulders. Your heart began to lighten. The day began to take on a rosy glow – because you told your story and someone listened.
- - - -
In these days, with all this electronic tomfoolery we have around us, we have a chance now – maybe for the first and last time – to just simply tell our story and send it out for someone to hear, someone who cares enough to simply listen. And learn.
We all aren't here to make tons of money by writing alone. We all aren't here to just pay money through our nose for all the gim-cracks and frilly excesses which others want us to buy so they can get rich.
There are as many reasons for “being here” as there are individuals on this planet.
And those reasons – each and individually – are stories.
None of these are more interesting than any other, none duller.
Each is a masterwork on it's own. Even if it's only a few thousand words, a few hundred, or just a short sentence – even a single word.
I'm just asking you at this point, like a friend, to go ahead and write that story. Publish it. Send it out to the world so someone else could read it or hear it or see it for themselves.
Because someone out there needs to read or hear or see that story and learn from it.
And that is why I wrote this particular story for you.

2nd Draft Arrived today. New title, new cover.

-->Well, it's a new approach to this, but the content is proofed based on the first. One suggestion ( +Rob Gol ) pointed out the parody error. So I lost it. 
Did the keyword research I needed and came up with a nice, over-long non-fiction title suitable for search engines to find.
Go ahead, see what errors you can find. Leave a comment...

Indie Authors! Publish an Ebook and Kindle Income

Improve your writing skills - Learn Self Publishing on Amazon, iTunes, Kobo, Nook - Discover Fiction Publisher's Book Selling Secrets...
by Robert C. Worstell
Visit Midwest Journal Press for more material that didn't fit into this ebook.

“Indie Authors! Publish an Ebook and Kindle Income: Improve your writing skills - Learn Self Publishing on Amazon, iTunes, Kobo, Nook - Discover Fiction Publisher's Book Selling Secrets...” by Robert C. Worstell is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 3.0 Unported License.

WARNING: Controversy ahead! This book contradicts the “best experts”.

 

How This Book Can Help You.

You probably have a story inside you that's just busting to get out. Most people do. And the main reason I wrote this is because it was talking too loud in my own head. So now it's talking to you.
The problem is that most books you'll run into on self-publishing either tell you how you have to spend a lot more money to write, copy-edit, get a cover designed, format it, publish it, and then run big PR campaigns to get sales up. (We're talking in the range of $25,000 or more.)
Which means (if you follow their advice) you are going to be listening to that voice in your own head for a while longer – your day job is going to have to pay for that book, in addition to everything else.
Practically, these “experts” are proving that there is more money in telling people how to self-publish than there is in writing self-published books. (Just as more people got rich from selling picks, shovels, pans, jeans, and whisky to gold miners than any of these miners.)
The story for you here is that you're about to learn how to start from where you are now and get your story published – beginning today, with what is within reach of your own hands. I've been where you are now, and already have done the research and bought the books at my own cost in order to give you a “leg up”.
And this is what nearly fried my brain: people who were supposedly “experts” in this area were telling us readers all about how to do it when this was their 1st or 2nd ebook. So this book took a lot longer coming back up from blind alleys and climbing out of hidden pits in the road.
If you want to find some actual expertise talking, look up how many books they've actually published. And even then, you can get snookered when someone is selling a bunch of “conventional wisdom” hype – such as some fiction author wants to make some money off his celebrity with a “factual” non-fiction how-to manual.
This book is for you.
This book is kept short, and has lots of links in it so you can make up your own mind about how you want to proceed. The reason I wrote it was to scratch my own itch. I've been self-publishing since 2006 and have more than 4 dozen books out there, most in multiple formats. But they haven't been selling as well as I liked. Also, ebooks have finally matured enough that they've be come a viable sales platform.
(But after this one is up and online, I'm heading back to other research that is calling...)
The premise for what you are reading is that you don't have to buy or pay for anything in order to get your book written, published, and selling online. You can start right now, with just what you have within reach. And not spend another dime if you don't want to.
I'm not saying this is a perfect book. But it's kept nagging at me long enough that I've finally sat down to give it a life of its own.
Sure, you can find all of this on your own. Be my guest. But the point is that for a couple of bucks, you can learn from my successes as well as my errors – which should save you a lot more money that it costs.
We are going to cover:

Writing,

Publishing,

Marketing & Sales.

And I've included a final chapter on how to spot the phonies and the scam-artists, as well as people who are trying to get more followers or speaking jobs at your expense.
Now you know how this book can help you. So let's get started...