Zero Alchemy Blog

Rethinking Royalties: Authors Deserve Better Than the Monthly Book Hustle

Mon, 11 Mar 2024 21:29:27 GMT

I wanna talk about something that's been bugging me in the world of fiction book publishing.

You know how authors these days feel like they have to pump out new books every single month just to keep the lights on? It's kind of crazy when you think about it, right?

I mean, the whole concept of royalties is to create passive income from past work. This should be creating a steady income for authors from the previous publications so they can kick back a bit and enjoy life, or at least know when they retire they will have a stream of income still.

But instead, we've got authors stuck in this daily grind, barely able to catch their breath between one book release and the next.

It's time to make royalties the way it was intended. Authors should be able to rely on their backlist to bring in some cash while they focus on what they do best – writing! Instead of treating royalties like some kind of monthly paycheck, let's get back to the original idea of passive income.

Imagine if authors could invest their resources into their older books and do so at a positive, scalable ROI…95% on autopilot and the rest more on maintenance mode.

If they did that, they could turn those forgotten titles into a goldmine of passive income.

Instead of chasing after the next big (temporary) thing, authors can invest in long-term strategies and value sustainability over quick wins, which is how my clients are thriving long term, having $50k months while on vacation, making 7 figures even when they take a year off for their health, and paying off their kid’s college education and expenses.

Why SHOULDNT that be the case? It’s because authors have been lied to. They’re so busy being afraid they are going to “fall” for something that won’t work…so they aren’t trying what WILL.

But you know what they do fall for? The idea that success isn’t possible. Now talk about falling for something that won’t work. There’s a bit of irony there.

The bottom line is, the current system of monthly book releases is wearing authors thin and missing the whole point of royalties. It's time to give authors the chance to kick back, relax, and let their backlist do some of the heavy lifting.

If you want to bring some balance back to the world of fiction publishing, drop me a line. I can help anyone who is on board with hiring cover designers, editors, and investing in marketing/advertising.

PS: we can do it all without any social media, too. Because surely by now you can see that people just do that because it’s free, not because it works. They’d be better off getting a job in fast food or being a neighborhood dog walker and taking those funds to invest in their author career to turn it into a business so they can quit the job they might not like. Instead. They take on another job they don’t like (begging on social media for readers to try their books) except that job they hate doesn’t even pay! Makes no sense!

Let’s stop the insanity and work smarter, not harder. Learn how to run your author career like a business so you can make passive, scalable income.

Looking forward to chatting to anyone who is serious about making 6-7 figures soon �� Just Message me on Facebook to get started!

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Top Book Marketing Mistakes Self Publishers Make and How to Avoid Them

Sun, 10 Mar 2024 22:45:56 GMT

Other Book Marketing Sites Have Been Lying To You!

So you've poured your heart and soul into writing your fiction book, only to find your marketing efforts are falling flat. Don't worry, you're not alone! Many authors make common mistakes when it comes to promoting their work. In this blog post, we'll explore the top mistakes authors make when marketing their books and provide practical tips on how to avoid them. Stay tuned to learn how to effectively promote your book and reach a wider audience!

Introduction to Book Marketing

Many sites will tell you that, as an author, writing a book is just the first step in the publishing journey, and then you need to start marketing your book.

They're wrong.

Marketing actually happens at every step leaving up to publication...

...and then Promotion and (sometimes) Advertising will take over.

If you want to reach and engage potential readers, you need to know who those readers will be before you every put your fingertips to your keyboard.

Do that, and book marketing won't seem like a daunting task. In fact, when you do things in this order, the promotion and sales will happen nearly automatically.

Authors using our methods often tell us they feel like they should be doing MORE, yet they are making better money by doing LESS.

Successfully promoting and selling books to your ideal readers is not the behemoth task authors think it is. It's actually something that happens automatically if you do the marketing work before you writing and launching your book. The only reason authors struggle with this now is because they are doing things in the wrong order.

It's a bit like trying to put socks on AFTER you put your shoes on. Why do this to yourself?

What you DON'T need is social media promotion, influencer support, or book signings. You know, the things every other book marketing blog has been telling you to do.

Spoiler Alert: YOU are not the problem. Their terrible time-wasting "busy work" advice is!

Conversely, a solid marketing plan that can significantly impact the success of your book by increasing its visibility and sales happens on AUTO PILOR when you're done all the prep work correctly.

While the best time to do this is before launch, if you missed out on doing this PRIOR to launch, it's not too late to fix it.

In this section, we will discuss some common mistakes that authors make when marketing their books and how you can avoid them.

Mistake ONE: N ot defining a target audience.

One of the biggest mistakes authors make is not identifying their target readership before writing their book. Without a clear understanding of who would be interested in your book, it becomes challenging to make sure you're delivering the elements they are looking for. That is going to make it even harder to create effective promotional campaigns that resonate with potential readers down the line.

Think of it this way: Which cake is easier to sell to someone for a birthday party. The cake you made after hearing about the birthday guy or gal's favorite flavors...or some random cake you made with whatever you could find in your pantry at the time?

The latter requires some luck to sell, but the former strategically sets up the sale.

Now, with this I want to caution that your target audience is not THE WHOLE WORLD. The goal here isn't to "write what sells" - you don't have to write a genre you don't like, you don't have to chase down the latest trending fads or tropes, and you don't have to sacrifice your personal beliefs.

You CAN write what you want. This is just about making sure it also aligns with the readers you plan to sell it to later.

So to avoid this mistake, all you have to do is take some time to research and understand who would be interested in your brand! Who is already reading books like what you want to write? What do both love about this genre or topic? How can you make sure to highlight those features in the development of your story and, later, in your promotional and advertising efforts?

M i stake TWO: Focusing on the WRONG things.

A survey by Written Word Media in 2023 showed that authors spend, on average 31 hours a month "marketing" their books. (Quote, Unquote.) Unfortunately, they aren't actually marketing their book in most cases. They only think they are. What they're really doing is shouting into the social media void for dozens of hours a day, successful authors are writing their next bestseller.

And those successful authors? Outside of writing more books, only ONE hour a week is going into making those books sell. Yet they are making $10,000-$100,000 PER MONTH. Versus authors who are promoting for nearly 7-8 hours a week yet on average are only making $100-$1000 per month.

That means some of these authors are making less than $3.50 an hour while other authors with the same amount of books are making as much as $25,000 an hour. That's a HUGE discrepancy, and while other "marketing professionals" want to claim those authors just got lucky, the truth is...

Their marketing methods don't work WITHOUT luck. Because their marketing methods don't work.

All you have to do is take what people are "luckily" doing...and do it on PURPOSE.

Just. Like. Any. Other. Successful. Business. On. The. Planet.

The truth is, you don't need social media. You don't need a website. And unless you're selling non-fiction, you don't need a blog, either.

You just need to tap into the trillions of dollars worth of technology that will connect YOUR book with the RIGHT reader...and that sale will happen IF you did the marketing work you needed to do BEFORE writing and while loading your book for sale and launching it.

Mistake THREE: Poorly Craft Marketing Materials.

And no, I'm not talking about social media images or teasers! Again, you don't need those. Hundreds of thousands of authors are doing things that way (at the behest of other book marketing articles) and they are NOT getting results from that. So save your time and money on "promo images" and focus on the one Marketing Image that matters:

Your book cover.

Using unprofessional or poorly designed book covers can actually hurt your brand. Your book cover (or other graphics) is often the first thing a reader sees. The reason "judge a book by it's cover" exists is because SO many people do exactly that. And they clearly aren't taking the advice not to.

You can make it your life mission to try to change their minds where so many before you have failed...

...or you can accept that most people judge a book by it's cover and go with the flow. Get a great cover. Make it so you have one less barrier to pass and one less obstacle to overcome.

Your cover is the first impression a reader gets of your brand. This tells them at a glance how important your product is to you.

Do you care about what you're about to sell them? Do YOU think your book is worth spending money on? Because if YOU won't spend money on your book, why should they?

When you buy things, don't you want whoever is selling it to you to care about experience and the quality of what you're about to buy? Would you buy something that looks like little effort went into it? Would you want to spend money on an item that you can tell just by looking at it was created by cutting corners and creating the least "passable" product possible?

If the person selling that product told you, "But this and I'll use that money to make a better product for you to buy next time?" how would you react? Does that make you want to give them your hard earned money?

Maybe. But for most people, it's a turn off. They aren't lining up out the door to buy something someone hobbled together. Readers don't care that you want to make money; they care if you will sell them something entertaining - something worth their hard earned cash.

And here's the thing: there are authors out there who are delivering them Ferrari level quality for Wish-level prices... The competition is steep! They don't want a Wish.com Fiction Book! Remember also, readers don't just invest their money with you, but their TIME. The most valuable resource of all <3

So make your book cover promises them that by having one professionally designed that is visually appealing and eye-catching.

Then make sure the book is professionally edited so you can deliver on that promise.

To wrap this up...

Book marketing is an essential part of the publishing process that cannot be overlooked, but it begins a lot sooner than you think, and it's not something you can skimp on. By avoiding these common mistakes and implementing effective strategies, you can successfully promote and sell your book to reach a wider audience.

If you're already utilizing top of the line cover designers and professional editors and you're still not seeing 6-7 figure a year returns, fill out an application with Seven Figure Author Career , and if you're a good fit, they'll chat with you for free about how to turn that around.

Or message the Six Figure Author Coach the word FRAMEWORK to discover the 12-Step Process hundreds of authors are using to market their books effectively in the modern day.

And don't forget to Join Our Free Facebook Group for live events and inspiring case studies!

Wanna see the results you can get when you do things the right way?

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Infostack...legit or scam?

183:787333593 (Rebecca Hamilton) — Wed, 02 Jun 2021 16:17:35 GMT

Review of Infostack’s Write Publish Profit 4.0

A little while ago, was invited to participate in a information stack via Infostack.io.

First off, I was pretty skeptical. Infostack is a discount deal site that offers various themed bundles of digital resources worth thousands of dollars for a low price (usually $49 bucks) for a short period of time.

Here’s what went through my mind:

Sounds like a scam...

It can’t be legit. How can they offer so much value AND make money? Impossible...

It sounds WAY too good to be true, and we all know what that means...

It’s probably just a bunch of bargain basement dud products no one would buy anyway...

It’s a scam.

Ok I know I said “scam” twice but these days getting a deal worth thousands for just $49 doesn’t feel legit. There’s got to be a catch.

At the same time, I'm hesitant to accuse people of scamming without doing my own research and getting to know a product for myself. So I clocked the 60-day money back satisfaction guarantee and hit buy.

At first, I was overwhelmed. There were a lot of resources. In fact, there were so many resources I wondered if this was part of the “bamboozle” - overloading us with a bunch of crap so we can’t see we’ve been conned. Especially because I get so many messages from authors who tell me that they've been scammed by other author coaches in the past, or telling me I'm their first experience with getting any real value out of a program.

So I decided to see if this was going to be like one of those times.

Things didn’t turn out how I expected.

Here’s why.

In fact, here’s five reasons why.

#1. They actually feature truly legit contributors

When I first started digging into the Super Stack as they call it, I reviewed all of the contributors and all their products.

I thought for sure these would be no-name scammers who are just trying to make a buck.

I was proven wrong.

I discovered these are just some of the heavyweights Infostack collaborates with to create their writing bundles:

USA Today bestsellers

TEDx talkers

NYT & WSJ bestsellers

Bram Stoker Award finalists

Emmy nominated screenwriters

And even the multiple Emmy-Award winning writer and producer of HBO’s BAND OF BROTHERS.

As if that wasn’t enough, Steven Pressfield (author of The War of Art) and Kate diCamillo (author of Tales of Despereaux) have given glowing testimonials for two of the products in their bundles.

That's when I decided maybe participating with my own offerings wouldn't be a bad idea after all. I mean, look at some of the names they've worked with before inviting me:

Lise Cartwright - USA Today, WSJ bestseller lists

Melissa Storm - NYT bestseller

Tom Leveen - Bram Stoker Award finalist, SPAWN comics contributor

Alexa Bigwarfe - USA Today bestseller

Alan Watt - Product praised by Steven Pressfield (author of The War of Art)

Susan May Warren - USA Today bestseller

Heather Cardona - USA Today 3x bestseller

Esther Jacobs - Int’l TEDx speaker

Nina Amir - Published by Writer’s Digest and Penguin House

Mary Buckham - USA Today bestseller

Christine Merrill - Amazon bestselling romance author

Michelle Richmond - NYT bestseller

Stacy Bauer - Bestselling children’s book author

Erik Bork - Multiple Emmy Award-winning writer-producer of projects including HBO's BAND OF BROTHERS

Mark Boutros - International Emmy nominated screenwriter

Caye Kim - NYT and USA Today bestseller

Ray Brehm - USA Today and WSJ bestselling author

Eva Langston - Pushcart Prize nominee

Michelle Medlock Adams - Bestselling children’s book author and journalist

Ryan Zee - Founder of Plottr, Booksweeps, & MailerLite

Maggie McCloskey - Product praised by Kate DiCamillo (author of Tales of Despereaux)

Now they've added me to their list: Rebecca Hamilton - NYT, USA Today, WSJ bestseller, the six figure writing coach who has launched over 500 USAT/NYT/and WSJ bestselling author careers and helpful countless authors hit six figures a year (sometimes *per series*)

#2. The products in the bundle aren’t crappy bargain basement products

Instead, I only found really good products.

Worse, I found products I already use and have paid full price for, like Book Brush!

*slaps head*

It’s hard to feel conned when you realize you can spend $49 to get a ton of products and scoop a whole year’ subscription to your favorite book cover creator / social media book ad template platform for half the price you pay to subscribe to a year of Book Brush!

Here’s a few of the first class products they’ve included in their writing stacks…

Storiad’s Author Book Promotion worth $280

The Writer’s Block Party 6 month sub worth $162

The Novel Factory 12 month sub worth $75

Plottr 3 month sub worth $111

Bublish 12 month sub worth $120

30% off for life Stencil Pro worth $215

Book Brush 12 month sub worth $100

20% discount on professional editing services

ProWriting Aid 12 month sub worth $79

20% discount to Silver or Gold Membership toThe Page Turner Awards (winners awarded literary representation)

50% Discount on 100 Covers Pro Cover Design

Real products. Real prices. Real savings.

Mind = blown.

#3. I couldn’t prove they weren’t offering tons of value

I contacted the guys at Infostack wanting to know the deets about their previous writing stacks. Of course, they were more than happy to share. Turns out none of them cost a penny more than $49! It’s crazy...but it’s true.

Write Publish Profit 3.0: 53 Products. Total Value: $5,695.14

Write Publish Profit 2.0 Flash Sale: 57 Products. Total Value: $6.057.82

Write Publish Profit 2.0: 48 Products. Total Value: $5,267.84

Writer’s Craft 2.0: 54 Products. Total Value: $5,192.52

Writer’s Craft Super Stack: 66 Products. Total Value: $5,560.39

Kidlit Creators: 26 Products. Total Value: $2,214.96

Coming on June 8th: Write Publish Profit 4.0: 49 Products. Total Value: $7,050.73 (and growing)

That’s a LOT of content for writers...and given that the contributors and products are all top-class, it really is impressive how they’ve managed to put all this together.

#4. I couldn’t ignore the premium quality eCourses, masterclasses, and training programs included from leading experts

At this point I’m getting tired of having my expectations smashed, but maybe the ecourses and training programs would be cheap products no one would want. Right?

Wrong again.

I got my hands on some of the ecourses, masterclasses, and training programs Infostack have included so far in their June 8th: Write Publish Profit 4.0 deal …

They asked me to keep some of the details a secret (for now), but my main takeaway, as someone who knows what works and what doesn't, is there's a LOT of information in these stacks that are accurate and useful. It makes these stacks a PERFECT stepping stone for authors who can't afford the Six Figure Author Coach Publishing Mastermind, but want to get some momentum with their royalties so that they can eventually join in on those advanced trainings with me!

Here's an overview of what type of content I saw inside...

Build Your Author Platform: The marketing membership that shows you how to build your author platform like a business to become desirable to publishers and sell more books! ($425 value)
A complete series of courses to build your author platform and launch your book like a marketing pro. ($125 value)
The course that shows exactly how to get email subscribers from your books on autopilot! ($100 value)
The ultimate shortcut to writing a great pitch that lands tons of interviews and gets your book sold. ($347 value)
A simple way to increase your income, influence and email list by hosting your own Virtual Summit! ($297 value)
Launch Your Next Book Like A Spacex Rocket
An A-Z program that takes students from saying, “I want to write a book,” all the way to post-publication marketing (and maybe even a best-sellers list!) in less than five hours a week. ($497 value)
The complete solution to build your author fan base, promote your book, and generate book sales. ($586 value)
Everything you need to successfully launch and market your book, regardless of topic or niche. ($497 value)
Self-edit like a pro and save a ton of money, too
Get a structured approach to editing your manuscript that teaches you how to self-edit your manuscript in organized layers, going from the big-picture editing of story arc all the way down to small-picture edits like grammar and style. ($249 value)
Perfect your story craft
Dive into everything you need to know to write a character-driven, action-packed, world-changing novel readers will love. ($393 value)
Craft satisfying plot twists with a self-directed workshop which will teach you how to make your story more suspenseful, unpredictable, and un-put-down-able. ($200 value)
Get the mindset to fulfill your writing dreams
Discover how to think like a successful person, and get your mindset on board with your dreams. ($197 value)
Transform the way you think and feel about yourself so you can write your book with confidence. ($553 value)

And this isn’t even the complete lineup. Wait til you see what I decided to throw in the mix after determining they are legit!

#5. What about that 60-Day Money Back Guarantee though?

That generous guarantee got me to buy with the intention to reveal what I believed to be the Infostack scam. It turns out Infostack is legit.

While I personally didn't get a refund because I was happy with the product, I did reach out to other authors who have taken my publishing mastermind and asked for a refund. I asked why they asked for a refund and if they got it.

Their answer?

1. The refund was sent within 24 hours. All they were asked was feedback on why they wanted a refund.

2. The reason they gave me (and I presume the reason they offered infostack) was because the content just wasn't what they needed at this time. (They were PMC graduates, so it makes sense, however, it's worth noting that MOST of my PMC graduates who got the infostack still say it was worth way more than what they paid and were happy with the stack.)

But the point is, yes, the Money Back Guarantee is real.

The Bottom Line...

Infostack offers a lot for $49, and on the face of it, it really does look too good to be true. But as I discovered for myself, (and reviewed here) it’s all true. I think the evidence proves it.

And it is kind of extraordinary.

So if you are a writer, or a self-published indie and anything turns up in your Inbox that has Infostack’s name on it, you can count on it being super legit and the best value you’ll ever get for $49...in maybe...ever!

So click on that link when it arrives like it’s a Willy Wonka Golden Ticket and get ahead of the writing curve like a pro. You can thank me later.

- Rebecca

New Year, New Books - Writing Productivity Tips

Tue, 07 Jan 2020 18:09:51 GMT

WRITE MORE IN 2020!

I’m sure you’re aware that the more books you write, the more money you'll make. Not just because you have more books to sell, but also because frequent book releases are favored by Amazon's algorithms , which improve the visibility of your books and therefore your brand.

With this knowledge in mind, every time a new year rolls around, I vow to myself that I’m going to make this year even more productive than the last. Published five books last year? Screw it, I’m going for ten this year.

It’s easy to make those lofty goals in the exciting, early days of the new year, when everything seems shiny and new. But how do you keep them if you’re on limited writing time each week? How can you increase your production without sacrificing quality?

In this week’s post, we’re going to visit some solid productivity tips to help you rock your new year’s goals.

#1 - PLOT YOUR NOVEL

I know, I know – BUT I’M A PANTSER, I DON’T LIKE TO OUTLINE, IT STIFLES MY CREATIVITY.

Well, guess what? It also has a negative impact on your productivity.

I used to be a pantser, too, and I’ve said those exact words before. Finally, Rebecca Hamilton got through my thick skull to at least try plotting, and I begrudgingly set about planning every single book I wrote before I wrote it.

Lo and behold, my productivity took off like a rocket. I learned that I can write 5x faster with a plot than I ever could just staring at a blank screen. Not to mention, the sense of accomplishment that came with actually putting words on the page instead of staring at a blinking cursor for an hour, which helped me want to keep writing . When you know where your story is going before you put fingers to keys, the time you would have once spent thinking becomes solid writing time.

Plotting your novel also has a two-fold benefit beyond just getting the words down – if your plot is well-done in structure and pacing, you’ll save time on revisions from poorly thought out story developments. Less time revising plot holes and pacing issues = more time spent writing new work.

#2 - DEVELOP A SCENE PLAN

This particular tip goes a bit hand-in-hand with plotting. Your plot for Chapter 5 might only say “Beth and Tom steal the manuscript.” Which is great – you know what’s going to happen in this chapter, and that helps you write.

But if you take a few minutes before you begin writing to plot out the KEY POINTS of the chapter, it will help you write even more, even faster . So “Beth and Tom steal the manuscript” might become:

Tom shows up at Beth’s house saying he knows where the manuscript is being hidden.
Tom and Beth travel to the warehouse in the dark of night – they’re almost caught by guards.
They break a window to get inside and an alarm goes off
They run through the warehouse while the alarm wails, looking for the manuscript
They’re caught, fight with two guards.
Tom yells at Beth to go, find the manuscript, I’ll handle this.
Beth races down row after row, scanning shelves – several false alarms
Beth finds the manuscript, shouts for Tom, and they run like hell.

If you wrote 250 words for each of those plot points, you’d have 2000 words – a decent sized chapter. And honestly, those points, if done well, could easily pull you a 3000 word chapter.

Now, you can certainly do this bit of fluff right before writing the chapter, but personally, I include this kind of plot-point planning in my initial plotting phase. The less I have to do at the actual moment of writing that doesn’t include word vomiting onto the keyboard, the better for my productivity. Plus, I’ve found that including all those little details in the initial plot, helps the plot to form more succinctly (and again, this saves you time in revisions.)

#3 – WRITING SPRINTS

You may have heard about writing sprints before. Heck, maybe you’re already a dedicated sprinter! But for those who aren’t aware of this method, let me unpack it for you.

Writing sprints are where you sit down with your Word doc (and hopefully the plot!), set a timer, and just pound out words until the timer goes off. Your aim is to write as many words as you’re physically capable of in that time frame.

Psychologically, having a timer set to your words make you work harder and faster. When you’re writing against a timer, you have to force yourself to shut off the inner critic and inner editor. If you backspace, you’re losing time and words. If you stop to think or agonize over every detail of the scene, you’re losing time and words. So with sprinting, you have to put the kibosh on those bad habits, and just write.

Yes, sure – there will be a higher chance of errors and typos when you sprint. But you can’t revise words if you don’t even get them down, can you?

There are a couple methods to doing word sprints.

Equal times On/Off: For example, you sprint for 15 minutes, then you take a break for 15 minutes. You could do 10/10, 15/15, or 20/20, though I wouldn’t recommend going higher in equal times (because if you take 30 minutes off, that’s a lot of free time that would be better spent writing!) Every writer is different in what their sweet spot is on getting in the groove, so it might take you a few experimental sessions to figure out what particular time frame works for you.
Unequal times On/Off: Again, with this method it really is what’s best for your personal situation. 20 mins on/10 mins off; 30 mins on/5 mins off; 40 mins on/20 mins off. There’s no right or wrong way to time your sprints in this method, except to always give the words more time than the break.

PRO TIP: Use your breaks to get other stuff done! Maybe you need to update your keywords. Maybe you need to research for a blog post. But I still wouldn’t recommend doing anything remotely related to social media until your writing time is fully and completely over. Social media is the #1 mood killer for the writing adult. Keep that crap shut off until you reach your daily word goal!

The best part? You don’t have to sprint alone! Joining a writing sprint group can help put you in an encouraging atmosphere to help you get more words on the page. If you need one to join, try Author Grow Writing Sprints - use code AGWORDSPRINTS for access! You can even start your OWN group with just your closest friends, where you can encourage each other, or join a forum meant solely for sprinting, like MyWriteClub or 4theWords.

#4 - LEARN TIME BLOCKING

There’s a lot of information on the internet regarding time blocking, so I don’t want to get too into the details here. Put simply, time blocking is a method of scheduling your day that enhances focus, minimizes distractions, and increases your productivity. Both Rebecca and I are time blockers!

Following basic psychology, it's better to block yourself time for 2 hours of writing, 3x a week than it is to only block out 1 hour, 6 days a week. Why is this? Because it can take 20 minutes for your brain to reach a state of flow. The psychology behind time blocking is that you will be more productive focusing on a task for a predetermined amount of time.

If you write for 1 hour, 6 times a week, you're only getting 40 "ideal" minutes each time. That's like only working 4 hours out of 6. But if you write for 2 hours, 3 times a week, you are getting 100 "ideal" minutes each time. That's like working 5 hours out of 6.

#6 - HONOR YOUR OWN DEADLINES

I know, I know – that’s easier said than done, isn’t it? But this is the most important part. You can map out how long it will take you to write a book, but your map will be useless if you don’t stick to the plan. 1000 words a day, 5 days a week, and you could finish a book in three months – but not if you deviate from the plan.

So how can you honor your deadlines? First and foremost, don’t let anybody stand in your way – not even yourself. It doesn’t matter if you’re tired. It doesn’t matter if the new season of Sabrina just launched on Netflix. When you schedule writing time, YOU SIT YOUR BUTT DOWN AND WRITE.

Some other tips for how to help yourself honor your deadlines:

Figure out what time of day is the best for your productivity (or the best to work around your schedule) and write at that time every day.
Turn off your phone, and ignore any and all social media. Getting sucked into social media is a great way to watch your productivity slip away, lost forever. You can’t get that time back!
Tell your family to leave you the heck alone. Your husband needs to take care of the kids for an hour. Your kids need to take care of themselves for an hour (if age appropriate). Threaten them if they even think about bothering you.
Pop on some noise cancelling headphones and get to work.

Here’s to a productive new year for all of us!

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Basic Dialogue Lessons

Tue, 10 Dec 2019 16:42:03 GMT

LEVEL UP YOUR DIALOGUE WITH THIS QUICK LESSON!

Before we dive into punctuation specifically, I want to go over "Said Bookisms." These are words that are used in Books to avoid the use of the word "said" -

and you should NOT be using them.

Example: "I can't wait!" she exclaimed .

Example 2: "Can you believe that?" he questioned .

Example 3: "I'm not sure I want to know," he extrapolated .

Don't. Do. This.

In most other areas of writing, variety of language is advised, but with dialogue tags, you don't want that.

To strengthen your craft, stick to basic forms (said/asked). These two tags are considered "invisible" to readers. As a person reads, they pass right over them, which keeps them fully immersed in the experience. Extravagant dialogue tags like the examples above draw the reader's attention, and in today's reading market, stand out like a sore thumb.

Tagging your dialogue this way is like putting a flashing sign over your head that declares you're an inexperienced writer. Like "Look at me! I have no idea what I'm doing and haven't put even 3 seconds into researching my craft."

It's probably the #1 worst thing you can do with your dialogue, and easily on the top 10 list of worst things you can do in your writing overall. Maybe even top 5. It's BAD.

Here are some articles on the topic:

1. http://www.dbjackson-author.com/2012/01/25/writing-tips-said-bookisms-the-obscure-sin-that-can-doom-a-manuscript/

2. http://www.fmwriters.com/Visionback/Issue%205/tags.htm

3. https://litreactor.com/columns/on-dialogue-tags-why-anything-besides-said-and-asked-is-lazy-writing

Now, it's okay to use alternate dialogue tags sparingly. Just like most rules in writing fiction, you have to know them to be able to break them properly . That is SPARINGLY, like you're salting a casserole for dinner.

However, there are better ways to indicate your speaker and tone without using them. Ways that will add more variety to your writing!

Some of the alternate dialogue tags can be used - if the punctuation is correct - to set it apart as ACTION rather than a tag.

WRONG EXAMPLE:

"I will be going there in the morning ," she sighed .

First of all, NOBODY CAN SIGH OUT 8 WORDS

They would have to have lungs the size of God

If your character is sighing anything, it better not be more than a single word. Try "sighing" the word aloud and see if it works. And again - do this sparingly. In the majority of cases, you don't need this.

Now, for stronger writing, you can have them speak and then sigh AFTERWARD.

"I will be going there in the morning ." She sighed.

The difference between the two is the puncuation used - and we'll be covering that below.

Another wrong way to use a tag would be using laughed as a dialogue tag.

"I don't think that's a good idea ," he laughed nervously.

IS THIS PERSON A HYENA? Imagine all those words cackled out on peals of laughter. That's terrifying.

That said, you could write, "I don't think that's a good idea ." He laughed nervously. (This is bad writing for other reasons outside of the scope of this lesson, but for the basis of this lesson, it works.)

But in general - don't consider "sighed" or "laughed" as dialogue tags. They're ACTIONS.

So now let's move into the next phase of understanding how we tag dialogue.

There are three main ways you should tag your dialogue:

1. Dialogue Tag (said/asked primarily)

2. Action

3. Exposition/Thought

(When I refer to a "tag" I'm speaking of what we use to indicate speaker.)

All of these would work, for example.

1. (Dialogue Tag) "This bad dialogue ends now!" Ted said.

2. (Action) Ted slammed his fist on the table. "This bad dialogue ends now!"

3. (Thought) "This bad dialogue ends now!" Ted wasn't sure it really would, but it was worth a try.

Action is one of the best ways to "tag" dialogue.

Using these methods is how we avoid saying "said" too much. Add variety with action and exposition, rather than using a thesaurus for the word said.

BEFORE

“Hey, Elizabeth,” I introduced.

“Hi, Olivia,” she responded back. “I trust you made it back home all right?”

“Yes, I just arrived,” I replied.

“You returned earlier than I was expecting,” she suggested. “I hear you had a bit of trouble?”

“Nothing I couldn’t handle,” I shot back.

“Didn’t find anything good, I take it?” she asked hopefully.

“No,” I sputtered. “Nothing noteworthy. I will type up my full report and send it to you by Monday.”

AFTER

“Hey, Elizabeth,” I said.

“Hi, Olivia. I trust you made it back home all right?”

“Yes, I just arrived.” I rummaged through the suitcase for something I could put away with one hand.

“You returned earlier than I was expecting.” Disappointment and curiosity coated her voice. “I hear you had a bit of trouble?”

My fingers landed on the old fabric still wrapped around the key. “Nothing I couldn’t handle.”

“Didn’t find anything good, I take it?” Elizabeth’s tone was hopeful, and for good reason. Finding something priceless and remarkable would not only be good for the university, but for herself and me, as well.

I pulled the cloth aside and picked up the key. “No,” I said. “Nothing noteworthy. I will type up my full report and send it to you by Monday.”

Okay, so now let's move on to the actual punctuation!

I'm going to start with the most BASIC rule, though of course there are more advanced dialogue techniques that might not fit this exactly.

Firstly, your punctuation for the spoken words goes INSIDE the quotations.

CORRECT

"Spoken words ," she said.

"Spoken words ." She pressed her lips together.

INCORRECT

"Spoken words ", she said.

"Spoken words ". She pressed her lips together.

Notice how in the first examples the comma or period is inside the quotations, not on the outside. There are some RARE cases where you wouldn't put marks inside, but that's outside the scope of this lesson.

Next rule: If using said/asked/variant (and those variants should be used sparingly and logically, as we talked about above), then you need a COMMA inside of the quote marks NOT a period.

CORRECT

"Spoken words," she said.

INCORRECT

"Spoken words ." she said.

Next rule: If using ACTION or Exposition (ie: not using said/asked/variant) then you want a PERIOD on the inside.

CORRECT

"Spoken words ." She pressed her lips together.

INCORRECT

"Spoken words ," She pressed her lips together.

This may all sound complicated, but there's a trick to figuring things out.

The easiest way to make sure you're placing the correct punctuation (comma versus period) is to remove your quotation marks entirely.

If the entire piece functions as a full and complete sentence, you need a comma.

If the entire piece cannot function as a full and complete sentence and is instead two fully separate sentences - you need a period.

EXAMPLE

I'm going to be fine my words hung heavy with exhaustion.

This is clearly not a sentence that makes sense. It's two sentences. So you would need a PERIOD for the quotations.

"I'm going to be fine." My words hung heavy with exhaustion.

We should go now I said, hefting my bag up on my shoulder.

This can definitely function as a single sentence - it just needs the punctuation! So you would use a comma.

"We should go now," I said, hefting my bag up on my shoulder.

Alternately, imagine if you were narrating people talking rather than showing it as dialogue, such as a sports announcer narrating a football game.

I can't believe it, she said.

I can't believe it. She walked away.

So think about how you would write it before the quotes, and that should make it a little easier to see when you should use a period versus a comma.

We hope this lesson is helpful for you as you continue writing your current work in progress! For more lessons on strengthening your writing craft, don't miss the Publishing Mastermind Course or the Amplify Your Craft course!

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The Top 3 Career Stalling Mistakes Authors Make

Tue, 03 Dec 2019 18:21:19 GMT

ARE YOU MAKING THESE CAREER STALLING MISTAKES?

Every indie author comes into their career fresh-faced and optimistic with a lot of preconceived notions about writing and publishing books.

But we'll tell you a BIG secret - everything you THINK you know isn't the bigger picture.

There's a lot more to making it in this industry than you think, and these three mistakes could be costing you success.

MISTAKE #1

You Think Marketing Starts After the Book is Done

No book has ever become successful that wasn't built right for the market.

Marketing starts before you write the book. Marketing is BUILT IN TO your novel from the plotting stage all the way through edits. But if you don't know the necessities of writing to market, you won't nail this technique. As a result, your book's sales could flag due to numerous issues you could have easily avoided.

Some authors know innately how to write their books in such a way that it hooks readers. Often, those authors are such voracious readers of their genre that they can't help but recognize the patterns and work those into their own books. But that is a MUCH smaller majority than you might think - and there are definitely PATTERNS to follow if you want a successful book.

At Zero Alchemy, we see this lightbulb pop on for authors ALL the time, particularly after they sign up and begin their journey with the Publishing Mastermind Course . Just the first few lessons cause an AHA! moment that changes the course of many careers forever.

We've all been stuck in the place where we think we're the exception to the rule. Unfortunately - you aren't. Being armed with the proper knowledge can help get you out of there and keep your career from stalling.

MISTAKE #2

You're Waiting for Luck to Strike

Luck can happen, and we aren't going to try to convince you otherwise. Winning a million bucks on the Powerball is sheer luck, and it DOES happen. But even winning the lottery comes with planning and statistics.

First of all, you have to buy a ticket; if you don't accomplish this simple step, you certainly aren't going to cash a check. Then there are the actual statistics behind the winning numbers. Odds are very, very low that you'll win because of those statistics, BUT it has happened and will continue to happen.

But why spend money on terrible odds when you can do things to take luck out of it? Likely outcomes based on tried and true techniques beats luck 10 times out of 10.

Stop waiting for your day to come. Stop waiting for the leprechaun to show up with your pot of gold. Stop expecting Lady Luck to bless your career. Get out there, learn everything there is to learn, and MAKE your own luck.

Otherwise, you'll stay right where you are for years to come.

MISTAKE #3

Hiring an Expert and Telling Them What to Do

We see this SO OFTEN at Zero Alchemy. Our team, for example, has decades of experience in publishing, and we have a track record of success stories from our constantly growing client base. People hire us for everything from plotting to advertising to one-on-one mentorships, and the people who follow our advice often see results almost immediately. You can't beat real world experience for getting results!

So why hire an expert and then ignore their advice in lieu of your preconceptions? What a waste of money! You have an expert who knows exactly what to do but instead, you want them to do what you were already doing without results. They won’t get results with your ineffective methods any more than you will, because it's those methods that aren't working. Your expert isn't the magic spell to make ineffective methods work. Your expert is the person who has the RIGHT methods to get you where you want to be.

If you want to keep doing things the same, you can do that for free. If you pay someone to help you, check out what new things they bring to the table.

Nothing changes if everything stays the same!

Zero Alchemy wants to give you FREE marketing advice.

And we want to help YOU next. ��

Join our newsletter TODAY and we'll send you marketing tips and tricks direct to your inbox.

Receive emails such as:

The Synergy of Writing and Marketing
Optimizing Sell Through with a Series
How to Identify Your Target Audience
And more!

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TO RECAP:

JOIN OUR NEWSLETTER for dozens of free marketing tips!
SIGN UP FOR THE ROADMAP TO WRITING SUCCESS COURSE - it's FREE and chock-full of tips and tricks for getting your career off the ground
CHECK OUT THE FREE SIX FIGURE AUTHOR WEBINAR and learn Rebecca's formula for plotting bestselling books - absolutely FREE.

ARE YOU READY TO CHANGE YOUR CAREER?

The Publishing Mastermind Course takes ALL the guesswork (and luck!) out of

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Find out more by clicking the image below!

Here at Zero Alchemy - WE KNOW WHAT SELLS BOOKS!

All About that Funnel

Tue, 05 Nov 2019 16:18:55 GMT

The newsletter funnel.

It sounds fancier than it is. Basically, your funnel is a product you give away for free to new subscribers to “hook” them into your audience.

But, Heather, why should I want to give something away free? I’m trying to make money!

Yeah, we all are. But I’m sure you’ve heard this common adage before: You have to spend money to make money.

In the case of a newsletter funnel, you aren't SPENDING so much as you're allowing for the product to be a loss. That's why newsletter funnels are also known as "loss leaders." You’re taking a conscious loss on the product as a marketing tactic to get readers to step into your world - readers who may not have otherwise found you.

From there, the funnel should hook readers to purchase the rest of your work.

The best method for authors to do their funnel is to give away a free short story or novella that leads in to your biggest series .

Say you have a 5-book series with each book at full price. You can write a short story/novella that leads into the series, put that up as your newsletter funnel, and then potentially earn 10 bucks per subscriber (as they buy each of the books in the series).

For example's sake:

1. You give away 50 copies of the free funnel.

2. 50% of those readers go on to purchase book 2 at $2.99

(For the non-mathematically inclined, that's 25 purchases, making a total of $50 income)

3. 75% of those readers go on to purchase book 3 at $3.99

(That's ~19 purchases, making $57)

4. 75% of those readers go on to purchase book 4 at $3.99

(Approx. 14 purchases, $42)

5. 75% of those readers go on to purchase book 5 at $3.99

(Approx 10 purchases, $30)

So let's say your newsletter funnel (the short story or novella) is only 99c to purchase separately. You gave up $15 in royalties to give it away for free to 50 people.

And made $179.

Even if your funnel is $2.99, you still made a profit.

Not to mention, anyone who reads your series to its completion is likely to go buy every book you've ever written, which means those free books you gave away EARNED YOU NEW FANS.

That being said, you should never expect a 100% return of investment. That’s why it’s also called a “loss” leader – because you’re understanding that not every reader likes every book, and so not every subscriber will read your freebie and want to continue your work. (Nor will every reader who downloads your funnel remain on your email list. It’s the name of the game!)

Now, let’s have a moment where I’m super real with you: If you have a loss leader up and it’s not getting you ANY sell through, you need to address the quality of your work. A good loss leader, well-written, marketable, cleanly edited, and formatted correctly, will have ROI. If you’re only seeing a 5% sell through on your series, there is something seriously wrong with your product. Marketing begins before you write - check out the Publishing Mastermind Course if you’re not already in it!

But, Heather - I don’t see a reason to give away a free ebook for subscribers. I can just let my newsletter grow organically with my fans as they buy and join on their own.

Sure, you can definitely do it that way! But that’s not going to grow your career . It’ll give your existing fans a direct link to your new releases, yes.

But it’s not going to bring you in NEW fans.

And that is something your newsletter should be doing for you.

Your newsletter isn’t just a communication route between you and readers.

Your newsletter is a marketing tool. Use it like the tool it is!

LET ZERO ALCHEMY HELP YOU GET THE MOST OUT OF YOUR FUNNEL!

We offer a service that builds your newsletter using JUST your funnel, which means higher quality subscribers who are joining your list because they think your book sounds awesome.

Click the buttons below to find out more!

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A Quick Guide to Cowriting

183:787333593 (Rebecca Hamilton) — Mon, 28 Oct 2019 15:22:21 GMT

Are you interested in cowriting? Let's break down the process!

I have co-written with 16 authors. Of that, 13 of my experiences were stellar. 1 partnership failed for creative differences, and 2 partnerships were, well, something I wouldn’t wish on anyone, costing me thousands of dollars I can never get back. In one case, I’ve had my words stolen from me and royalties never paid to me despite doing ALL the work - so I understand why people are afraid to co-write.

However, I also know how rewarding a coauthorship can be. I know the benefit of each author contributing their strengths. I know how two heads can be better than one. A musician for example may be a wonderful solo artist, but they may still also benefit to play with a band every now and then.

Knowing what I know now—not just from my experiences but experiences other authors have shared with me—I want to give some ideas, advice, and pointers on the subject.

FINDING THE RIGHT MATCH

Your ideal co-author will have opposite strengths to your own. For example, if you are a slow writer, but great at fleshing things out, they may write the first draft while you flesh out and revise the second draft. Perhaps one author is better at plot development, and the other author is better at marketing. Or perhaps one author is able to afford everything - best covers, high end editors, a huge marketing spend, so the other author heads up a larger area of the creative.

The key is to find someone who wants to do the things you don’t, and vice versa.

---

FAIR PRACTICES

Another thing to consider is what happens if someone decides they no longer want to continue the partnership.

This seems obvious: whoever broke the agreement by walking away should be the one to abandon the project. However, there’s other factors, too.

One thing you may want to consider from the set up is making it clear in your contract who contributed what.

For example, if you came up with the idea and the book titles and paid for most of the project, but they wrote 75% and you wrote 25% during a fleshing our process, and they want to walk away, who should get the project?

Conversely, if you were the one to walk away in the same situation, who should get the project?

It’s good to have a dissolution plan in advance. For example, perhaps in the above, if they walked away, you would pay them a share of royalties up to the going ghostwriting rates for the word count they contributed, since essentially they were only providing word count - where the actual concept was yours. On the other hand, if you were walking away, they may not want a mere ghostwriting fee as dissolving the partnership wasn’t their idea. You might want to offer a little more in that case.

You don’t want to be used. Alternately, you shouldn’t be a user either.

LOADING BOOKS

This is where things get tricky. Who loads the book? The person who invested the most money? The person who invested the most work? How do you ensure the author who loads doesn’t do things like steal all the money and refuse to pay you? I had this happen to me after investing 11k in cash and 30k in services to a coauthor AND doing 90% of the work. They decided they would just keep the money for themselves.

It sucks.

Unfortunately, the only solution is to keep books on your own account, but that puts them in a position of having to trust you same as if you had to trust them.

One solution would be not to invest too much time or money if it’s not going on your account. Another is to alternate loading books to which account. What isn’t a sure thing is sharing a login, because they can just change the password and lock you out. I can’t even suggest an escrow because they could just lock you out of the vendor account and then change the account payment details to their bank instead of the escrow account. To be sure, the possibility of being robbed what you are due is possible.

Contracts of course are great, too, but not everyone will honor a contract, and handling things legally can be expensive. (Which is something they can afford if they are stealing your share of the money and something you might not be able to afford because of that same circumstance.)

CHOOSING GOOD PEOPLE

Ultimately, there will be some risk involved, as you can imagine based on the above. So how do you choose good people?

For one, trust your instincts.

Beware of anyone who seems greedy - anyone who publicly displays that all they care about is making money no matter who they hurt in the process.

Also beware of ideas that sound too bad to be true. �� That’s not a typo! If someone wants you to do ALL the work, that’s a red flag. If they want you to do everything AND still put their name first on the cover, that’s two red flags.

Whoever does the most writing work should have their name listed first. Don’t let someone convince you that they are doing YOU a favor because they are a “bigger” author than you so you should do everything while the spotlight is on them.

Also beware of anyone who offers you a royalty share to write the book as a coauthor but who does NOT want your name on the cover. An author duo has gotten two of my friends with this trick. Writing without your name on the cover is ghostwriting, and ghostwriters are paid up FRONT. Getting an equal share of profits without getting equal exposure when YOU are the one writing should definitely be a red flag for you. People like this may never pay you your share.

Finally, trust your instincts. 2 out of 3 times a partnership didn’t work, I’d ignore a bad feeling. Both those times, the authors turned out to be doing the same thing to other people, too. And we are all afraid to name these people and share our true experience about working with them, even as we see them publicly lying and have proof of their lies. Just trust your instincts!! It’s better to wrongfully err on the side of caution than to ignore a gut feeling that was correct.

WEIGH THE PROS AND CONS

There are great aspects to co-writing, like the ability to create better products faster. And there are aspects that aren’t so great, such as the possibility of being let down or stolen from. And it’s always going to come down to WHO you work with. 13 of the coauthors I have worked with have been a DREAM. If not, I’d probably never co-write again after what the other 3 did to me.

But I learned from those 3. And hopefully you can learn from my mistakes by keeping an eye out for those red flags and moving forward cautiously in any new venture. And never give more to a partnership than you are prepared to lose.

___

MAKING IT WORK

Once you’ve found the right person to work with, make sure you are on the same page about how things will be handled BEFORE you hit a publishing stage.

Here’s a check list of questions to answer:

- Who will handle the plot?

- Who will handle the writing?

- Who will handle revisions?

- Who will pay for cover and editing?

- Who will pay for start up advertising?

- Whose account will the books be loaded to?

- When will the loading author pay the other author? Monthly? Quarterly? Threshold?

- What percentage of royalties does each author receive?

- How much of the book’s profit will be reinvested into future coauthored projects?

- Whose name goes first on the covers, listing?

- Who will mediate a decision anytime you can’t agree on something? Will you appoint a third person you trust to tie break, or will you take turns with who gets to make the final call?

- What happens if someone walks away? Who gets the books? Do they get a “severance” package? Does this depend on the situation?

- Can the other person force you out? If so, who makes that decision and what do you get for being forced out?

- Are there exceptions to these circumstances? IE: if you or they don’t do your/their agreed side of the work/don’t make agreed deadlines?

- Are there any quality standards you want the books held to?

Talk about everything you can think of up front, and get it all in writing! And of course, do your best to find trustworthy, reliable partners.

I hope this helps!

Wanna write MORE books FASTER, but aren't interested in cowriting?

Check out Zero Alchemy's team of ghostwriters!

$0.03 /word

Zero Alchemy's team of qualified and talented ghostwriters can make your business run smoother! Booking a ghostwriter with ZA also means fast, efficient, and private service. All it takes is a partial deposit to get started!

Zero Alchemy wants to give you FREE marketing advice.

And we want to help YOU next. ��

Join our newsletter TODAY and we'll send you marketing tips and tricks direct to your inbox.

Receive emails such as:

The Synergy of Writing and Marketing
Optimizing Sell Through with a Series
How to Identify Your Target Audience
And more!

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TO RECAP:

JOIN OUR NEWSLETTER for dozens of free marketing tips!
SIGN UP FOR THE ROADMAP TO WRITING SUCCESS COURSE - it's FREE and chock-full of tips and tricks for getting your career off the ground
CHECK OUT THE FREE SIX FIGURE AUTHOR WEBINAR and learn Rebecca's formula for plotting bestselling books - absolutely FREE.

ARE YOU READY TO CHANGE YOUR CAREER?

Find out more by clicking the image below!

Here at Zero Alchemy - WE KNOW WHAT SELLS BOOKS!

Publishing and Cost Per Leads

Mon, 21 Oct 2019 18:29:27 GMT

Let's Talk COST PER LEAD as it relates to the Author Business.

Authors are creative creatures. We want to write books, not get a business degree or run our own publishing company. Unfortunately, unless you're lucky enough to land a six-figure deal with a big six publisher, you're going to be responsible for your own marketing and business building.

As a result of that creative drive, many authors can be out of touch when it comes to the business side of things. If you don't have the knowledge or training, you won't know inherently what good performance looks like. So today, let's talk about cost per lead and how that relates to your growing business.

First of all, what is cost per lead ?

Wikeipedia says :

Cost per lead, often abbreviated as CPL, is an online advertising pricing model, where the advertiser pays for an explicit sign-up from a consumer interested in the advertiser's offer. It is also commonly called online lead generation.

Contrary to cost per mille (CPM) and cost per click (CPC) pricing models, where advertisers are charged for impressions (a.k.a. "views") and clicks, respectively, in a CPL pricing model advertisers pay only for a qualified sign-up regardless of how many impressions or clicks their advertisement receives. CPL advertising enables advertisers to generate guaranteed returns on their online advertising money.

That's a whole lot of words. Let's break it down to a even simpler terms:

Cost per lead is when you actually gain a new reader from the "leads" you found.

For authors, this often means the "cost" of your newsletter funnel paid for the possible lead.

Today's online marketing is ALL about cost per leads. Wikipedia goes on to say:

[Fortune 500] marketers,[non-profit organizations] and political candidates such as the [2008 Obama presidential campaign|2008 Obama campaign] are using CPL advertising to build e-newsletter databases, community sites, and other acquisition programs with consumers that are passionate about their brands/causes.

Did you read that last line? Cost per leads mean marketing for users who are "passionate about your brand."

This isn't just about marketing to anybody and everybody in the world and ending up with thousands of subscribers who really don't want anything to do with you or your brand. Cost per lead advertising means seeking people who would specifically be into your work.

The average cost per lead for most businesses is $33.

Since what authors sell is a lot cheaper than most industries ($1-$15 per book, depending on sales pricing or whether it's a paperback), $1 per lead is what most professionals in our industry actually aim for .

Let's say you get 10 leads for $10, and 20% of them actually like your books. That's 2 readers. If 2 readers read just ONE 4-book series priced $0.99, $2.99, $2.99, $2.99 ... then you have more than made your money back.

1.) 10 leads for $10

2.) 2 leads go on to read your whole series

3.) Royalties for the series for those two readers:
Book 1 (.60), Book 2 (4.00), Book 3 (4.00), Book 4 (4.00).

$12.60 royalties

So if even TWO LEADS pan out, you've made back the cost of gathering those leads plus made $2.60 on top of it. And those readers who devour your series will most likely go on to be a fan of anything you publish.

If you can't get 2 out of 10 people who think your books look good to read ONE 4 book series of yours, then stop acquiring leads and focus on improving your product.

I recently sent out an email offering one of my books as a free book with purchase for preordering my new book. The same email also included a $50 Gift Card Giveaway. My Book Link started off with 7x as many clicks as my gift card giveaway...and ended with 4x as many clicks.

Meaning people were more interested in my books than they were in CASH.

And then? I started getting the emails... "I already have all of your books. I'm a huge fan. Preordered this one, too! It looks great!" I can't even give my books away for free because my readers are already buying them all.

If you have a great product and you have great readers, you don't need a whole lot of readers to succeed.

But you HAVE to provide a product they want and can enjoy. If you're doing this, it's not hard to see the value of our readers are EASILY $1, if not more.

If you listen to the marketing gurus out there, they will all tell you the same thing. For example, Buck Books, a paid newsletter feature service, used to pay authors $1 for every subscriber the author sent their way.

If you run FB ads, and you're offering one of your books for free (at least $0.35 you could have made selling it) and you get a $0.10 CPC (which is low, but not impossible to get) that's $0.45 a click. $4.50 gets you 10 clicks. If 2 of those people convert (20% - PS, the average rate of conversion on FB ads is about 9%) that's $2.25 cost per lead. And then maybe 20% of THOSE people buy one of your series...

And you know what?

I THINK EVEN THAT IS WORTH IT! (If you write books that readers will love.)

That said, $1 per lead is AMAZING! Aim for that. If you can get lower than that - AWESOME. Do it. (Just make sure you're not doing it with shared CSV files that will put you at risk of breaking GDPR and Spam laws.) But if you can "only" get $1 cost per lead, that's awesome. Keep it Up. Even if your Cost Per Lead is $2-$3... Worth it. But $1 CPL is nothing to shake your head at :)

Lately, I've been running a Facebook ad at $0.10 CPC for a freebie book funnel, and at $3 a day ($21 a week) we're averaging over 40 sign ups every week. That's a little over $0.50 per lead. So getting leads at $1 (and less) is definitely possible! If you're interested in our Facebook ad newsletter builder, find out more at the link below.

BASIC BUILDER

PREMIUM BUILDER

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Here at Zero Alchemy - WE KNOW WHAT SELLS BOOKS!

Getting the BEST Results from Your Paid Feature

Mon, 14 Oct 2019 19:03:38 GMT

Have you ever paid for a newsletter feature and had what you think are less-than-stellar results?

There are a lot of factors that go into what makes a successful paid advertising run. While there likely are some unknown "services" out there that don't work, you'd be surprised how few of these duds there are. Most scam artists aren't going to be out there actually marketing their services because the first person to be scammed is going to cry wolf . So if you've heard of a service from your friends or network, it's likely that service is legit.

But why didn't your $25 feature make you hundreds of dollars?

Let's discuss!

What sells a book? We talked about it in a prior blog post , but here's a quick recap:

Beautiful, made-to-market & relevant-to-genre cover
Excellent blurb
Rave reviews
A GREAT first page that hooks them to purchase

If you're missing ANY of those four things, the viability of any paid feature you purchase is going to go down. So your very first action before you begin running paid advertising on your books should be to go through that checklist and make sure you're up to industry standards.

Traditional publishing industry standards, not indie author standards. :P

Don't just look at your precious book and say, "Oh it's beautiful! It's the most beautiful book in the world! It's just perfect!" It's not a baby with chubby cheeks and big eyes meant to make people melt into puddles. You won't get readers treating your book like a baby. You have to treat your book as a TOOL. The way it looks is part of your marketing arsenal. Ask trusted friends. Better yet, ask industry professionals. Wear a thick skin and let them advise you on the aesthetics of your book. Take courses and learn what sells.

Once you're absolutely certain you've reached the standard necessary to make people one-click your book, you can look at what makes a successful paid feature below!

READERS WHO JOIN THESE NEWSLETTERS ARE LOOKING FOR...

First in a COMPLETED series (or if the series isn't completed, AT LEAST 3 books available)

You see it all the time in reader groups. Readers will post asking for recommendations because they're ready to start reading something new. They'll state the genre they love, the tropes they love, and then follow the whole post up with "series only!" This is something READERS want. They don't want to get invested in a 1st in series and not have somewhere else to go after. I'm personally the WORST at this - my biggest focus right now in my writing career is to finish my series, because I've learned and seen with my own eyes that a completed series is how you earn rabid fans.

In this same vein, only run paid advertising on the 1st in the series! Your ROI will go down significantly if you run book 2 or later. Readers do not want to go track down your book 1 and most will not do so . Which means you will lose a potential sale and waste your advertising money. Readers want to one-click the book actually featured in the newsletter. From there, your book should hook them to keep buying in the series (refer to the aforementioned Hooking Your Readers blog post !)

A professional product - no misspellings in the title, subtitle, or blurb

Most readers do read at a third grade level. This is a fact. But reading at a third grade level doesn't mean they don't see TYPOS or MISSING WORDS on your sales page! All readers want a book that is well-written and not riddled with errors. Seeing an error on your product page is going to turn away a lot of potential buyers. As I mentioned earlier, it's so easy to have a couple of trusted friends look over your book page after you publish. For goodness sake, please do this.

Run your book at FREE or 99c ONLY!

Yes, I know you're more likely to earn your investment back if you run a book at $2.99. But how are you going to earn that investment back if readers won't one-click a book over 99c? Readers who join these types of newsletters join because they're looking for INSANE deals. They're on a budget. They can't drop ten bucks a week on three books - but they can justify dropping ten bucks a week on ten books. Or they load their ereaders up with freebies, and if they fall in love with your free 1st in the series book, they spend their budget buying the rest in the series.

WHAT MAKES A GOOD PAID FEATURE?

Keep in mind industry open and click rates - even the BIGGEST paid feature services only have 50% open rates or less. Lots of people JOIN newsletter lists, but only a smaller subset of people actually ENGAGE these lists. Those who do engage see books in their email every single day, so you need to show them a product that they will immediately want to one-click. You need to stand out above the crowd. (Refer to the last two sections!) You're not going to sell thousands of copies on a $25 service, so don't go into it expecting that.

Don't judge your feature on what it sells for book 1. Judge your feature on:

A.) how high it affects your rank on the ebook platforms. Every copy of your book that sells, is borrowed in KU, or has pages read in KU affects the rank of your book. You can't see your borrows, nor can you see the immediate effects of KU page reads (those will trickle in for LONG after the feature!) But your rank will boost your ORGANIC visibility, too! Which means that nice little rank boost your feature got you may put you in front of new readers simply using Amazon's algorithms. RIDE THIS BOOST! Share the book to your personal newsletter and social media at the same time. Ask your friends to share it. The higher you see your rank move, the more likely you'll reap benefits bigger than the service itself.

and B.) How many copies you sell in the SERIES in the weeks after . Did you sell fifteen copies of book 1 at 99c? Now you're not running any other paid features. But one week later, have you sold 5 copies of book 2 at full price? Two weeks later, did you sell another 5 copies of book 3 at full price? You've officially made back the cost of the cheaper services by people who bought book one and went on to buy the rest.

There is a TAIL on your paid newsletter features. You'll see the initial spike if you have a great product, but the TAIL is where you really reap the benefits. If your book is awesome, you'll even see those readers become lifelong fans, which means they'll go on to buy the rest of your books. This tail can continue exponentially.

Don't run the same book within three months of its last feature on the same service. Most paid feature services are constantly list-building (if they aren't, they aren't very professional!) So most services will get a decent new following within three months, which means there will be new readers ready to see your promotion. Sending the same book sooner than three months out will likely see a much smaller ROI and be less worth your effort (and money).

Falling short of some of these guidelines I've covered will even LOSE you a spot in some of the bigger services. Bookbub, FKBT, and Book Rebel all deny books based on unprofessional sales pages and shoddy homemade covers. Many services require a certain amount of reviews before they'll even look at your book. Why do they have all these rules? Because the industry is saturated with non-professional books, and any service who cares about its subscribers wants to send them THE BEST deals. These services know what readers are looking for.

And now you do, too.

Remember - a paid feature service can get readers to your book's sales page. But from there, it's up to YOU to make them want to purchase. If your legitimate paid feature didn't earn you results, you should reevaluate your product!

ADDENDUM FROM REBECCA:

What are the Exceptions to the Rule?

Of course, there are exceptions to every rule. We're not saying you should never promote a later book in a series or never utilize a service sooner than within 3 months of last using it.

Rebecca says we'll sometimes re-run features very close together, despite a diminishing ROI, in the following circumstances:

Aiming to hit a bestseller list

When list-aiming, it’s less about immediate ROI, as you're investing in the exposure of hitting a list later.

Launching a new book.

If it’s a new release, she may promote a later book in the series (in conjunction with marketing book 1), though she does this knowing the results on Book 2 won’t be as strong . Her goal is to get eyes on the series, and she says she only does this when she has the budget to market both book 1 and the latest release.

Growing Her Audience.

To gain new readers who may buy a future book in the series at a later date or new readers who may review her books, she will sometimes promote an incomplete series. She does this knowing she’s investing in future sales that aren’t going to happen anytime soon.

Rebecca adds that she recommends only marketing in these cases if you are doing so for “the big picture” and are able to take a short term loss to achieve an eventual long term gain.

Today, however, we’re focused on how to get those short term gains with newsletters! So go into your paid advertising knowing EXACTLY what you're hoping to get out of it.

WANT TO LEARN EVEN MORE ABOUT

CREATING A BOOK THAT WILL SELL?

Find out more by clicking the image below!

NOT READY TO TAKE THE PLUNGE?

Pick up our FREE materials!

Join our newsletter TODAY and we'll send you marketing tips and tricks direct to your inbox.

Receive emails such as:

The Synergy of Writing and Marketing
Optimizing Sell Through with a Series
How to Identify Your Target Audience
And more!

Absolutely free - no strings attached.

TO RECAP:

JOIN OUR NEWSLETTER for dozens of free marketing tips!
SIGN UP FOR THE ROADMAP TO WRITING SUCCESS COURSE - it's FREE and chock-full of tips and tricks for getting your career off the ground
CHECK OUT THE FREE SIX FIGURE AUTHOR WEBINAR and learn Rebecca's formula for plotting bestselling books - absolutely FREE.

Here at Zero Alchemy - WE KNOW WHAT SELLS BOOKS!

Don't Take "Can't" as the Final Answer

183:787333593 (Rebecca Hamilton) — Mon, 07 Oct 2019 17:06:01 GMT

DON'T TAKE "CAN'T" AS THE FINAL ANSWER

Today, I want to share a story with you that demonstrates what most (if not all) successful people have in common.

I grew up poor. We were lucky that my grandmother let my mom and I live with her until I was 9. My mom spent those 9 years saving up for a down payment on an affordable townhouse unit.

My life was full of a lot of love and a lot of "We can't afford that." Don't get me wrong; my mom did what she could as a single mom. (Then she married my dad, but he was also broke! But they both did what they could for all of their kids.) I had great birthday parties. I had amazing Christmases. But that came from the other 363 days of "No, we don't have the money."

Either I was born with an inability to accept I was "destined" to do without, or at some point, I learned I didn't have to. Maybe it was because one of the first sayings I heard as a child was "If there's a will, there's a way."

Whatever the case may be, I didn't take "can't" as a final answer. My mom couldn't afford $5 for a movie ticket? I accepted that, but I also did something about it.

I searched parking lots for change. Nickels. Pennies. If I was lucky, quarters and dimes. I found change in couch cushions. I shoveled snow in people's driveways, walked their dogs, babysat their kids.

I didn't see failure as destiny. I saw it as a hurdle.

Nobody gave me the $5 to go to the movies. And while some people might say "it's better when you earn it" let me tell you: No, it's not. The movie is equally good either way. I definitely would prefer everything being handed to me. That's real.

But we can't all have things handed to us. Some of us have to work for it. It comes down to whether we really want it. Do we only want it if it's given to us, or do we want it enough to work for it?

I didn't look for problems. I looked for solutions.

Hell, I didn't HAVE to look for problems. They weren't hard to find �� But when faced with one, I didn't use that as an excuse. I didn't say, "Oh well, I guess I can never have what I want in life because no one can give it to me." I said, "How do I make this happen?"

Sometimes I didn't have the answer for that right away. But I didn't stop asking myself the question until I had the answer.

My writing career cost me thousands of dollars to get started - that was before I even hired a cover designer or paid for any marketing. That was just what I spent on learning. I studied for 4 years, for several hours a day.

Now I try to help others get to that point for a lot cheaper and much more quickly . It required a lot of sacrifice and patience, working a third shift job and doing Swagbucks, reviewing music on Slice the Pie and anything I could do to earn each and every dollar to hone my craft and learn necessary marketing skills.

I could have accepted that my failures would be due to being broke, but I wanted to succeed as a writer too badly to accept that.

That’s why I channeled the teen self who moved mountains just to go to a movie. I used that perseverance to blaze a path for my writing career. It wasn’t luck or fortune. It was hard work.

Sure, one way to get what you want in life is to be independently wealthy or married to/birthed to a millionaire. But that's not the ONLY way.

And your climb won't always lead up. Sometimes you fall. Sometimes you slide. Sometimes you find yourself farther down the mountain than where you started.

There is one thing EVERY person is capable of, if they choose: looking for solutions until the day they die.

I'm not saying they will always find a solution. I'm not saying it's easy. If it was, I wouldn't have been homeless at 18 years old. I wouldn't have spent years skipping meals so I could feed my kids.

But every time I experienced a major positive shift in my life, it was when I said, "No more feeling sorry for myself. What can I DO to make my life better?" And then I started doing that.

I battle with anxiety and have since I was a child. I still have days where I feel negative. Days where I think there's no solution for whatever problems I'm facing. Days where I feel like life is out of my control.

Guess what?

It is.

Life is out of all of our control.

You will have days that suck. You will have days where you feel like you tried everything and nothing worked. You will have days - weeks, months, years - where any solution you or anyone else can think of just WON'T work.

I'm not saying you're wrong. I know what it's like to face 100 solutions that are all useless to you.

But you know what's also true?

You can still keep looking for a solution.

For every person who wasn't born into success but found it regardless... this is what they have in common. They didn't look for problems; they looked for solutions.

They didn't make excuses. They made a way.

There's no guarantee that looking for solutions will make you succeed. But not looking for solutions is a sure way to fail.

If you want to be successful as an author, or in any other profession, you have to stop looking for opportunities to say "I can't" and ask yourself: What will it take for me to say "Yes" to my career?

Look for Solutions. Be Amazing. Persevere.

Zero Alchemy wants to give you FREE marketing advice.

And we want to help YOU next. ��

Join our newsletter TODAY and we'll send you marketing tips and tricks direct to your inbox.

Receive emails such as:

The Synergy of Writing and Marketing
Optimizing Sell Through with a Series
How to Identify Your Target Audience
And more!

Absolutely free - no strings attached.

If you really like free stuff, be sure to join the Roadmap to Writing Success - a FREE course that provides a variety of free tools and resources to help you grow your career, and check out the Six Figure Author FREE webinar , which covers Rebecca's bestselling plot formula. We also have a FREE Facebook group just for inspirational posts like this from Rebecca. Join Change Your Mindset, Change Your Life today!

TO RECAP:

JOIN OUR NEWSLETTER for dozens of free marketing tips!
SIGN UP FOR THE ROADMAP TO WRITING SUCCESS COURSE - it's FREE and chock-full of tips and tricks for getting your career off the ground
CHECK OUT THE FREE SIX FIGURE AUTHOR WEBINAR and learn Rebecca's formula for plotting bestselling books - absolutely FREE.
Join Change Your Mindset, Change Your Life for weekly inspiration on preparing your mind for success!

ARE YOU READY TO CHANGE YOUR CAREER?

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Here at Zero Alchemy - WE KNOW WHAT SELLS BOOKS!

Hooking Your Readers: A Timeline

Mon, 30 Sep 2019 20:33:32 GMT

There are a few things - in a specific order - that readers do when they’re looking at books and deciding what they want to purchase.

Let’s take a quick look at each step of the reader's decision process and then discuss what you can do to make your product shine above the rest.

THE PROCESS

Readers look at a total of four qualities when they're buying books.

THE COVER
THE BLURB
THE REVIEWS
THE INTERIOR

THE COVER

This is your front line. The MOST important tool in your arsenal. Your cover is the #1 reason people will either click on your book – or NOT click on it. If you have a crappy or mediocre cover, you’ve already lost the potential sale.

There are some readers who WILL one-click based entirely on your cover! If your cover can’t stand up beside the top selling books in your genre on Amazon, you’re doomed before you even begin.

If you don’t have the money for ANYTHING else right now, Zero Alchemy suggests you put the budget into getting a stellar cover. Otherwise, you’ll be as overlooked as Waldo in a Where’s Waldo? puzzle.

If you want to learn how to create covers yourself, join the FANTASY COVER DESIGN COURSE! Rebecca is teaching step-by-step how to create your own to-market covers.

Both Rebecca and Heather offer cover design services. Rebecca only has 1 slot per month, booked through the SIREN BOOK COVERS group , but Heather has multiple spaces per month (and rock bottom pricing). If you're looking for a cover in genres outside Science Fiction and Fantasy, check out the Roadmap to Writing Success for a full list of recommended cover designers!

THE BLURB

If you can loop the reader in with your gorgeous cover, now’s the hard part – making them want to one-click based on your blurb .

It’s easy to think “Oh, it’s just a blurb. What kind of special crap does it need? Just a summary of the plot and voila . Blurb.”

Well, no. It needs a lot more than just a “summary.” This isn’t a psychology textbook wherein you’re summarizing a Freudian interview. You need tension. You need to make their heart pound. It shouldn’t tell the whole story, but it should leave them wanting more.

If your blurb doesn’t have those qualities, you’ll lose sales at this stage, leaving you only with the people who bought on the merits of your cover.

Zero Alchemy offers several different blurb options for you! If you need an edit to make your already existing blurb better , we do that. Or maybe you want us to write your blurb for you – we have that too!

OR maybe instead of buying a service every time, you’d really just like to be told the bestselling blurb formula so you can emulate it yourself with every book you release. We do that with the BESTSELLING BLURB FORMULA course!

THE REVIEWS

You hooked them with the cover. You intrigued them with the blurb. At that point, some readers will one-click, and you’ve landed that sale.

But another population of readers want to know that the book they’re about to invest three bucks in is WORTH their money . And let’s be real – just because you love your book and think it’s worth their money doesn’t mean readers think the same.

So this is when readers scroll down the page and scan your reviews. Now, bad reviews in small quantities aren’t going to keep your books from selling. Most readers are smart enough to see through the occasional jerk reviewer who just wants something to complain about or picked up the wrong genre or got triggered by something silly.

But if you have mediocre reviews that mention all the same things (ie shoddy editing, whiny character, bad grammar etc.) you’re going to lose readers. If you’re landing reviews like this on the regular, you need to reevaluate your writing and your storyline.

As Rebecca always says – the marketing starts BEFORE you even write the book.

Zero Alchemy offers a review service! Similar to NetGalley – but cheaper! – you pay for access to our huge reader base who love to read and review. We have a cheaper LITE service , and a higher PREMIUM service .

Do you want to build your own ARC team? Check out the Publishing Mastermind Course. It has everything you need, A to Z, to become a powerhouse publisher – including a section on building, growing, and maintaining your ARC team. It can also help you create a polished product that readers will LOVE to review!

THE INSIDE

So your reviews are good, and there aren’t any glaring repetitive issues readers mention. You might get some one-clicks before this stage, as well!

But another further segment of readers are going to click on your book cover and look inside.

Are they going to find a book that’s properly formatted? No weird breaks in text, no missing paragraphs, no forgotten page breaks or chapter headings?

And what are they going to find on that first page of your novel? Is it boring backstory and description that’s going to make them close your book and navigate away without purchasing? Or is your PAGE ONE something that’s going to make them want more?

Readers have to WANT your book. Books are a luxury, not a necessity. If you can’t convince them it’s worth it, you’ve lost the sale.

You can find dozens of service providers out there offering cheap interior formatting. Do your research and make sure you find someone reputable who knows what they’re doing!

But as for your first page… the way you make your first page hook your reader is taught in CRAFTING THE BREAKOUT BESTSELLER.

You can see how the process plays out. At every step of the process, you’ll get buyers. But if you’ve failed in steps 2-4, your number of buyers will significantly decrease with every step.

So what can you do? LEARN, for one thing. Take courses on these subjects. Run Google searches and look for experts in the field giving away free advice. Listen to the people who you hire to advise you. Or you could just hire these services out to the best in the field.

Zero Alchemy offers services than can help you with EVERY step of this checklist, whether it’s something you want to learn how to do yourself, or something you just want to pay someone to do for you!

As always, if you need help finding service providers or figuring out what you need in your career right this moment, you can always join the Zero Alchemy newsletter for some FREE marketing advice, and pick up the Roadmap to Writing Success – a FREE course with a listing of reputable service providers!

ARE YOU READY TO CHANGE YOUR CAREER?

Find out more by clicking the image below!

Here at Zero Alchemy - WE KNOW WHAT SELLS BOOKS!

Understand the Synergy of Writing and Marketing

183:787333593 (Rebecca Hamilton) — Tue, 24 Sep 2019 16:07:13 GMT

When I first began my career as an author, I made a lot of the same mistakes I see other authors making now.

One of the biggest mistakes I made was believing that writing, publishing, and marketing were each dependent from one another.

Write a great book? Learn everything there is to know about my craft? Use editors? Work with critique partners? Get great reviews on my books because my writing is strong?

Check. Check. Check. Check. Check.

Of course, like many authors, I also knew that always working to improve my craft was important, and I continued to do that as well.

That was done. Now for publishing, right?

Create a cover that everyone said they loved? Check.

Write a fantastic blurb that made people want to buy? Check.

Make sure the formatting on my book was professionally handled? Check.

Dotting all the i's. Crossing all the t's. All that was left was marketing, right?

So I learned everything there was to know about marketing. Well, I thought I did, anyway. And yes, I was successful. I landed an agent. I closed a film deal. Publishers wanted my current and future books based on the success of my first title. I was, on the knowledge I had at the time, easily making $1,000 - $5,000 a month, though mostly $1000 to $2000 a month. Which isn't great, but it's better than how many other authors were doing.

I couldn't seem to break into any long term success, though.

And I. Read. Everything.

I read all the books. Took all the courses. Absorbed all the online articles. Followed the advice of all the "tell all" success stories of other authors.

Something was missing.

There was something all these books, articles, courses, and authors were holding back. Something that brought it altogether. I just knew it.

And it turns out I was right.

I wished there was someone out there to tell me THEN what I now share with others. I could have saved a lot of time and money, and I could have made a much larger profit on my books. Instead, I fell into the trap of working to help other people achieve their dreams, and my own dream ended up on hold. Still, I wouldn't trade it for the world. Because while helping others, I picked up on patterns that I never would have picked up on if I hadn't spent over 30,000 hours immersed in this line of work, helping thousands of authors launch their careers.

Several years ago, it all clicked into place. The patterns revealed themselves to me. I finally figured out "The Secret Formula" that people usually only discover by luck, and many of those people struggle to repeat it. But now I know. I know the repeatable, proven process that has worked over and over again for my clients since I've started to implement it.

That's what the Publishing Mastermind Course is all about.

But I'll give you a hint: It came down to synergy.

You see, the big mistake I made was compartmentalizing things. It was thinking, "right now, I only need to learn about writing craft" and then later, "right now, my writing is covered, I only need to learn about marketing."

There is nothing anyone could have told me at the time to convince me otherwise. In fact, I probably would have had hurt feelings if someone hinted there was more I could do with my writing. I would have taken that to mean they were saying my writing was awful, which I knew it wasn't. (I knew it could be better, of course, and as all good authors do, I'm always working to improve.) BUT I knew worse books than my own were selling, so why was that? It must be that I just needed to learn the marketing compartment.

Marketing compartment. That was not a typo for department. You see, maybe people think they are lacking in the marketing "department" but the problem is that when you try to learn marketing independent of writing, you are compartmentalizing your career.

And that is, hands down, without a doubt, (I really can't emphasize this enough!!), THE NUMBER ONE cause of authors not being able to break through to make six figures a year.

Even so, because I've been where those authors are, I know there's nothing I can say to help authors understand this. I can, however, teach those who are willing to learn. That's where my Publishing Mastermind Course comes in. Students of PMC realize that marketing goes beyond what steps you take with your final product. They see firsthand, how treating all areas of your career synergistically can be the difference between a good career and a great one.

Author Liz Moore reads from her book, 9/16/16

a katz / Shutterstock.com

Everyone who joins PMC and learns these techniques comes to me later to say, "Wow, you were right about that whole synergy thing." The thing is, I know I can't convince stubborn authors of this without first showing them how the method works; but authors usually aren't willing to learn how it works because they are stubborn. I get it. Because that was me.

If you're in PMC, then you're already starting off in a better professional headspace than I did. So I look forward to seeing you use my methods to crush your goals and outdo my own success!

Since getting my head out of the sand and opening my mind to look at things synergistically, I have been able to:

Help over 450 authors hit the USAT or NYT bestseller list.
Hit the USAT bestseller list with a single title on two occasions.
Hit the New York bestseller list with single title on my first try.
Teach dozens of authors how to make six figures a year writing fiction.

Now, of course you can always take the path I did: Trial and error for 30,000 hours. I won't even tell you how much money I spent to learn what I know now, but it's definitely well above the six figure mark.

Most authors, I suspect, would rather not waste their time and money, though. That's why you're here, right? You want to learn everything I learned without having to make the mistakes I made, without having to spend the money I spent, so you can get the same six-figure results other graduates of this course who are effectively applying all of this knowledge are seeing.

So, what are you waiting for? In the Publishing Mastermind Course, you will learn everything you need to know, in the order you need to do it, start to finish, to create a highly successful author career.

ARE YOU READY TO CHANGE YOUR CAREER?

Find out more by clicking the image below!

Here at Zero Alchemy - WE KNOW WHAT SELLS BOOKS!

Understanding Advertising: The Delayed Buyer Effect

Mon, 16 Sep 2019 19:44:38 GMT

UNDERSTANDING ADVERTISING:

THE DELAYED BUYER EFFECT

Today I’m going to share a Facebook Ads Insight with you that I haven’t seen anyone else talking about.

This isn’t a post on how to set up ads, use targeting, ad copy, or images, or how to get a low Cost Per Click. There are plenty of resources for that, including our Advertising for Authors Course .

Instead, I want to share an insight that will help you no matter how you run your ads - whether it’s using my method, someone else’s method, or your own method.

This insight is something that is true no matter how you run your ads.

I call it the “Delayed Buyer Effect.”

The Delayed Buyer Effect is a result of what happens when someone sees your ad, wants to read your book, but doesn’t buy or download. Or does download with Kindle Unlimited, but doesn’t start reading right away.

Most advertisers don’t factor this in when determining the success of their ad. This can result in an advertiser having a great Cost Per Click and Relevancy Score but shutting their ad off after a few days because they are spending more than they’re making.

And who wants to do that?

Realistically though, if you lose a little money on week one, break even on week two, and then turn a profit from week three through week twelve, you’re going to turn a profit on your ad that makes the ad worthwhile.

But most authors never get that far! They turn their ads off too soon. They don’t even leave the ad on long enough to collect good data that can help them when they create future ads!

Ideally, you will have an ad that turns a profit immediately. But even when this happens, the Delayed Buyer Effect can still come into play.

For example, if you have an ad spending $25 a week and making $50, you may want to increase your spend. But if you expect spending $50 will immediately make you $100, you may be in for a rude awakening.

Sure, that *might* happen, but more likely, you will spend $50 to make $60 - and that looks like a less profitable place to be. ($10 profit instead of $25 profit.)

So you should drop your Spend back down, right?

Not necessarily. Y ou want to allow time for the Delayed Buyer Effect to catch up with your ad.

Perhaps the next week you spend $50 and make $75. The week after, you spend $50 and make $90.

This is your earnings catching up with your advertising dollars, and not having this foresight is one of the number on reasons that authors fail to grow their careers.

PixieMe / Shutterstock.com

But you may be wondering what causes the Delayed Buyer Effect.

It can be a number of things:

Perhaps they bookmarked your book to buy later because they don’t have the money to purchase today.
Perhaps they want to clear a few more titles off their to-be-read file first
Maybe they need to wait for a spouse or parent to buy the book for them
Or maybe they did borrow the book through Kindle Unlimited, but just haven’t had a chance to read it yet, resulting in a delayed profit on your end.

Now that you’ve heard this, it sounds like common sense, right? Chances are you’ve done this type of thing for these types of reasons as a buyer yourself!

Yes, you will get immediate purchases before that from those who are ready to Buy Now. I’m certainly not suggesting you keep running ads that are bleeding you dry and not working. However, you also need to look for patterns and keep Delayed Buyer Effect in mind when analyzing your ad results, including both new ads as well as scaling up existing ads.

One of the most common issues I see is authors who are breaking even on their ads within the first week, but then turn their ads off because it’s “not making a difference.”

Again, this is short sighted. And not just because of the Delayed Buyer Effect that could have had them operating at a sweet profit within another 1-2 weeks. It’s also because those ads, even when breaking even, are building their reading audience and increasing their odds of potential reviewers!

That said, if you’ve done all of this and your ads still aren’t working, here’s some things you will want to assess to determine what needs to be fixed:

How Effective is Your Sales Page? Does it make readers want to buy?
What Sell-Through Opportunities Do You Have? Are you selling one book, or will that book also lead into other books in the series?
How Is Your Sell-Through Looking? Is your writing engaging enough to sell books 2 and 3?
Is Your Ad Copy, Image, and Audience Effective? If it is, you should see a low CPC and High Relevancy Score.

Cover, Blurb, Writing, Sales Page, Audience, Ad Copy, etc - it’s all important! But today, I just wanted to bring to light the idea that you shouldn’t kill an ad too quickly. Some books just take a little time to build up momentum. I’ve seen authors both start in the same place, and one author gets discouraged and turns off ads and never grows... the other author sticks it out, even if only to collect data, and within a couple weeks, they are heading in the right direction (if not just crushing their goals altogether!)

I hope this insight will help you when making decisions with your ads, no matter which ads method you opt to learn and follow!

Wanna learn how to run your own ads?

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Learn from Successful Books - Even if You Don't Like Them!

Mon, 16 Sep 2019 18:55:43 GMT

LEARN FROM SUCCESSFUL BOOKS -

EVEN IF YOU DON'T LIKE THEM!

When I started writing, I remember how many people (mostly authors) HATED Twilight. They picked it apart:

Bella is bland
Bella and Edward’s relationship is unhealthy
Vampires shouldn’t sparkle

The list could go on. I’d say the Twilight saga was one of the most hated-on series by authors.

Until Fifty Shades of Grey . Then the cycle began all over again.

For as long as I have been in this industry, there have been authors who don’t understand how other books get published, but their (obviously superior in every way) books can’t find a publisher. Or they can’t understand how someone sells so many books when their (obviously superior in every way) books aren’t selling.

I’m not gonna tell them their baby is ugly. That’s not my style. Some of them may even have beautiful book babies that really ARE better written. Who knows?

What I can say is this: If you see a book millions of readers like, trashing that book might alienate some readers from trying your books.

And what do you gain?

On the other hand, if you look at what about those books WORKS , what about those books do READERS love , you can take that knowledge, apply it to your own book, and then of course write it in your own (obviously superior) way.

And I say "obviously superior" as a lot of authors have expressed to me how their books are better than books that are selling. Again, in some cases that is even true. But whether you think your books are better or not, the concept of learning from successful books despite those books’ flaws still apply.

Being an excellent writer is wonderful. Writing amazing characters is fantastic. Having plots without holes is the bee's knees.

But the people who sell books are selling them because they know how to:

structure their novel
entertain readers
hit on the right tropes at the right times

You can do those things and STILL write superior stories and characters. But if you DON'T do those things, your superior stories and characters will languish in the doldrums.

If you are a hobby writer, that’s great! Write for you!

Career authors, however, write for their readers - not themselves.

Imagine going to the doctor for toe surgery, and you wake up with a missing finger. The doctor says, “I didn’t do the surgery for you. I did it for me.”

Imagine going to the car mechanic to get your engine fixed, and instead, he replaces the seats in your car with ones he thinks are more comfortable (but you don’t like), and he says, “I work on cars because I want to make cars what I want them to be. Not what you want.”

You can be a hobby writer. That’s okay.

But if you want to be a career author, you need to be ready to work for your readers. You can still love what you do. In fact, all my courses are about how to take what YOU love and find a way to make it what readers will love too.

Look at it this way: if you write a book for an audience of just you, how many books are you likely to sell?

Don’t waste your energy hating on books that are successful. (By all means, feel what you feel about the book... but just don’t waste your energy on it!) Stop telling readers how what they love sucks and how you’re better. That won’t sell your books. Instead, invest your energy learning why those books are successful so you can be successful, too . And by all means, do it better than they did!

Show readers that you care about their interests and are ready to entertain them. Once you find a way to do what you love in a way your readers will love too, you will have found the key to success.

And again, it’s okay to not do this, too. I’m not dissing hobby writers. There is nothing wrong with writing for fun or just writing for yourself �� But Zero Alchemy is intended for authors who want to bridge writing what they love with selling to readers who will love what they write!

FINAL THOUGHTS

It’s perfectly okay to dislike a book. We all have legitimate reasons for disliking some books, whether it's the subject matter, the writing, or whatever grinds your gears.

But the spirit of this blog post is about learning from successful books, even if there are things we don’t like about those books. Ask yourself how a title was successful and sold millions - what was so powerful for garnering sales that overcame the flaws? It wasn't just marketing or advertising. Marketing and advertising cannot and will not keep selling (in mass quantities) a book readers don't think sounds interesting, nor will it make them keep reading books 2, 3, 4, etc.

Whatever the secret sauce is that makes a book successful, that is worth learning from!

Here at Zero Alchemy, we might have some of the answers you're looking for. Why don't you check out the Roadmap to Writing Success? It's absolutely FREE to download, and you might walk away with a better idea of what your secret sauce could be!

Click the image below to join this FREE course!

Here at Zero Alchemy - WE KNOW WHAT SELLS BOOKS!

Building and Maintaining an ARC Team

Mon, 16 Sep 2019 18:07:53 GMT

BUILDING AND MAINTAINING AN ARC TEAM

A lot of authors tell me the toughest decision they have to make regarding their ARC team is how many copies to give out . They worry that if they give out too many, they'll make less sales - but if they don't give out enough, they won't get many reviews. This is a completely valid concern! But I do have a solution for you that's included in this process.

PART ONE - GETTING STARTED

The first step in starting an ARC team is being willing to give away a lot of copies. You won't have to do this with every book, but you'll need to do it with at least one.

Perhaps you want to use a book that's exclusively free to your newsletter (so you can get some subscribers in the process). If you use BookFunnel or Prolific Works, this method will also tell you which reader got which book. You can also use sites like LibraryThing and StoryOrigin to give away copies.

What I did when I was first starting out was create a spreadsheet. Each book I sent out for reviews had its own page so that I could keep track of the email, the date I sent the book, and a link to their review (if they sent it to me after reviewing).

After 2 Months (60 days), I would send a friendly reminder to those who hadn't reviewed yet. This is a one-time email, and after that ONE TIME, I don't follow up with them - and I NEVER harass them for a review or shame them for not reviewing (Seriously - Don't Do This!)

I just send a note that says something along the lines, "Hey, about 2 months ago, I sent you a book for review. If you got a chance to read it and want to leave a review, I would love a review posted here (link). If you decided not to review, or just haven't had a chance yet, that's okay. This is just a one-time note to follow up. Thank you for your time either way!"

Then I leave them alone. forever. If they post, they post. If not, they don't. You do NOT need to say anything else to them.

That said, there's still things YOU can do with what you learn from their choice to review or not review, and that's narrow down your regular reviewers. These will be your BASE ARC team. They will get "first dibs" on your review copies when you offer them.

PART TWO - AMPING UP THE REVIEW NUMBERS

WITHOUT LOSING SALES

The next step in this process is how you treat future books, and the process is pretty simple. Create a form that readers can fill out to apply for a review copy. Let them know that you have a limited number of copies and that you are giving priority to people who have preordered the book already and those who have reviewed in the past. The form should include:

Reader's Email
Link to Recent Review they've posted on one of your books (if applicable)
Amazon Order confirmation number if they've preordered
Link to their Goodreads profile or Amazon review history if 2 or 3 don't apply to them

#2 and #4 are a great way for you to select readers you think would be the best match for the current book you're sending. And #3 is a great way to send out copies without hurting sales. (Some worry about readers cancelling preorders when they do this, but in my experience, that doesn't happen.)

I personally send out 100-150 copies per book (when it's a book I really want to push), and I send first to my best reviewers, then to those who already preordered, then to those whose Goodreads/Amazon history indicate they would enjoy my offer.

Due to this set up, I'm able to really promote the sign up far and wide - Social Media, Newsletter, Groups on Facebook, Boosted FB posts on my page, etc. Usually I get (on average) 100-500 requests for a review copy (depending how hard I push the sign up form), and from that, I get 50-100+ reviews. Without hurting sales. (Not to mention, the reviews themselves help bring in more sales!)

AN IMPORTANT NOTE

You aren't going to set this up and have a robust review team in a week. This advice is not a golden ticket to have 50-100 reviews on your next release, either. This is a PROCESS, and it takes TIME. But it works, if you put in the effort!

WANT TO KNOW MORE? The Publishing Mastermind Course has a FULL, STEP BY STEP (with screenshots!) plan for creating and growing your ARC team, as well as everything you could POSSIBLY need to know about beginning, growing, and maintaining your author publishing career.

Find out more by clicking the image below!

Don't want to search for reviewers yourself?

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