AN INTERESTING MOVE
AMAZON ADDS "SERIES" TO THEIR SOFTWARE PLATFORM
Let’s talk a little bit about planning your writing. If you are just interested in leveraging your business then one book might be all you need. Anyone can write one book and as you will find if you continue to read forwards (or go back through my archived articles), you will find strategies to help you accelerate your process.
However, if you would like to have an author career or maybe even start and grow your own self-publishing business one day then you need to be thinking more strategically and you need to think BIG and BOLD!
What kind of Series can YOU create that will improve people’s lives, businesses, health, career, relationships, or some other area of their personal or professional life?
I believe a bigger push for SERIES is one of the next PUBLISHING trends. Don’t get me wrong series have always been around. Smart authors and those with an eye to the future have utilized series to build their reputation and brands. Our client’s books a few years ago on weight-loss (pictured above) not only garnered them new prospects to the tune of about 8-10 follow-ups out of about 20 people (when previously only 2-3 set follow-up appointments) but also reduce their time answering potential patient questions they just gave them a free book and they built a passive online revenue stream.
Before the pandemic, people seem to have less time and there was a move toward shorter non-fiction books. Now Covid19 has created an interesting dichotomy. People are spending their time differently. Many have more challenges, less time and are less able to do other activities outside the house. Others have received an unexpected bonus of more time and so are writing more or reading more. Some are pursuing new knowledge and skills to finally be true to themselves with thoughts of pursuing a new lifestyle or career because there are no guarantees for tomorrow. While still others are just trying to weather this unexpected disruption of their lives. You may be someone who falls into one of these experiences.
The reason I say SERIES are one of the next moves is Amazon just added a new tool to their kdp software at the end of 2020 and it played havoc (and I mean major havoc) with their processes and outputs. New software always has bugs and theirs cost my business hours of time on the phone with their customer representatives with little or no solutions along with cold hard cash to fix things that were the fault of their software. That addition is a way to CREATE SERIES for your books and connect them so that customers can buy all of the series in a set instead of individually one book at a time. Can you say BINGE READING (like binge-watching on Netflix, old or new television series, etc.) that same mindset is moving into book publishing?
I am not sure if they were moving in that direction already or if it is a result of customer requests but it is new and if you are thinking about a career as a writer or even starting and growing a publishing business you need to keep this in the front of your mind.
As I have said, writing and publishing are easier than you think. You can learn all the skills, tools, platforms, marketing, launching, distributing, apps, and much more from my articles here to be successful or you can search out the thousands of others on the internet on any given platform. But be careful to research and follow only those with a proven track record because there are also many people online who will take advantage of you as a new or even vintage author just to take your money without providing any valuable return.
As far as writing is concerned YOU PROBABLY HAVE ALL the knowledge you need inside you. You just might need some time, research, or help to get it out of your head and your heart and on to paper or your favorite electronic device then onto the platforms where your readers can find you.
With the advances in online publishing, the world really is your audience, but as we have said before, you will be far more successful if you carefully chose who your ideal audience or client is and then move forward with a publishing plan that will reach them in the quickest, most effective way. I will share more on your publishing plan in a future article.
If you target your reader then you can start generating revenue faster. If you create a SERIES of books on any given subject you can and will have an ongoing conversation or relationship with your readers. Once you have this success, you can then increase your marketing budget and move on to reach additional audiences of your choosing.
Another thing a SERIES does for you is it makes it possible once you have your best-selling books to become a recognized expert in your field, reach more readers and generate more revenue. I wish you that success.