Kindle Publishing.
It’s the hottest new thing these days for the make money crowd (and has been for awhile now). If you were to listen to those teaching it, you would think it is as easy as spending a few days writing, throwing up a cover with stock photo images and then waiting for the money to roll in. Not so fast though. There is a degree of planning and strategy that needs to take place (combined with a fair amount of good luck and, equally important, good writing skills).
One of the strategies most commonly used is to make your book available for free so that you can get reviews (everyone knows that you need good reviews.) Lis Sowerbutts goes over her strategy for non fiction books here(and what happened).
Of course, it isn’t all glitz and glamour and before you go banking on what you are going to make, here are some more realistic figures from a writer who also happens to be a traditional published writer as well. And if you are thinking that having a best seller makes a huge difference, here is another perspective from someone who had a best seller.
And then there is always the question how do I write what the audience wants to read? Chuck Wendig answers this question (kind of) in the entertaining way that only he could pull off.
Here’s a realistic perspective into publishing to show what you are up against. Every year, 2,200,000 books are published in the world. The difference between a best seller and the other 2,000,000+? Best Seller lists. Tim Ferriss, who happens to have 2 best selling books, gives you a little looksy into how bestseller lists work.
Are writing books too daunting a task for you? You could try writing for magazines instead.
Ask the Right Questions
One of the harder things that a business (online or off) has to content with is brand identity and equally important, how to get things done that actually matter. Where do you start? Well, by asking the right questions. Olivier Blanchard believes that if you aren’t asking this one question, you probably aren’t getting anywhere fast….And if you are? Well, you are ahead of 80% of the businesses out there.
Of course, there’s an art to asking the right questions. And good interviewers really know how to dig deep to get the answers they want. Valeria Montoni gives some examples of very good interviews that include the likes of Bob Dylan, Francis Ford Coppela and Seth Godin.
Marketing blah’s
In a world of penguin, panda and other black and white animals, SEO has taken a turn into the next big thing- content marketing. But must we abandon our old ways? Not so fast, says Jon Cooper, who claims that contentless marketing is still alive and well and, while he isn’t saying it works better than the latest shiny new way to do things, it shouldn’t be thrown out with the bath water just yet.
If content marketing IS on your mind, then you need to write posts that are SEO friendly and actually rank. But how do you do it? Andy Crestodina shows you how in a short 2 minute video (it’s sped up…so don’t think it took 2 minutes).
It’s bad enough that google is changing the rules for what SEO’s should and shouldn’t be doing. What happens if you wind up getting the dreaded unnatural link letter? Patrick Hathaway concedes. What happens when Batman can’t save Gotham City?
All SEO aside, perhaps the hardest thing that businesses have to come to grips with is what do you track? Bloggers, and even some small businesses, tend to weigh their worth on vanity metrics like time on site, social media shares and views. While there are plenty of articles on what you shouldn’t track, Ben Yoskovitz argues that perhaps we should break it down to one single most important metric…and track that. I can most certainly see the logic here.
Those Kids Today…
Anyone with kids will tell that the amount of things that they are bombarded with is absolutely crazy. I told my wife recently that I remember being happy playing in the dirt growing up. Materialism starts early. Worried? Joshua Becker gives some great tips on raising your children, minimalist style, in a world that is obsessed with consumerism.
Of course, just because they are marketing to your kids, doesn’t necessarily mean that your kids are biting. Ford found this out the hard way. While it may be great that the next generation is all about sustainability, the bigger question is what is it going to do to the economy? It never occurred to me that buying less would mean a weaker economy.
Finally, here’s a great video on the story of stuff. We want to sell more stuff. But is it really a good thing?
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