All posts by Jordan Smith

Ideas for Building Your Author Mailing List

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Ideas for Building Your Author Mailing List

Last time, we looked at the “holy grail” of author marketing: the mailing list. This incredible tool gives you the potential to reach lots of people in one fell swoop every time you launch a new book. It’s like having a built-in line of folks waiting to come purchase the new books you’ve released.

Sounds really great, but you might be wondering exactly how you’re supposed to build up your author mailing list. After all, if you just started one since reading my post a couple weeks ago, you’re probably looking at the number of subscribers and thinking, “Big line of people? This list is so small it’s not worth sending anything to!” And as you start out, that’s how it feels. So today, let’s look at some ways you can build that list into something you feel accomplished about every time to send out an e-mail. Continue reading Ideas for Building Your Author Mailing List →

Does an Author Really Need a Mailing List?

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Author Mailing List Image

So far in this series about what “things” an author really needs, we’ve looked at websites and blogs. Today, let’s finish out the triumvirate of oft-recommended author site things with a look at the mailing list.

An author mailing list, in my humble opinion, is one of the most essential tools for both building your audience and selling your work. In fact, I would even rank it above an author website if you had to choose between the two. To be perfectly clear: yes, you do need a mailing list.

Let’s look at why, shall we? Continue reading Does an Author Really Need a Mailing List? →

Does an Author Really Need a Blog?

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Does an Author Need a Blog Image

In the last post, I started a series asking what “things” an author really needs, such as a website, mailing list, Tumblr, Facebook, and so on. In this post, we’ll tackle the question of whether an author should have a blog.

You’ve probably read plenty of posts on this subject. It’s a pretty hot topic with authors. Some will say that authors always need a blog, and that it’s the most effective way to sell more books. Others will tell you that a blog isn’t at all necessary—and that it’s even detrimental to getting your books finished! With so many opinions, it can be a confusing question to ponder.

Little wonder, since the best answer I can give you is it depends. A blog can be a great thing, or it might not be so wonderful for you. Let’s look at some questions to help you decide if a blog is right for your author platform. Continue reading Does an Author Really Need a Blog? →

Does an Author Really Need a Website?

Marketing

Author Website image

Perhaps you’ve heard that you need a website to succeed as a self-published author. Or maybe you’ve wondered if it’s completely unnecessary—just have your book available on Amazon and you’ll be fine. Or you’ve possibly thought that you could just use a Facebook page as your website, not bothering to run a full-blown author site.

What’s an author to do? Let’s look at the question together. Continue reading Does an Author Really Need a Website? →

The Best of Fix My Story

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Hey folks! I’m doing something a little bit different for this post. The past couple of weeks have been crazy for me and I haven’t been able to sit down and write an amazing post for you. I have some really great things in the works and I’m excited to share them with you, but I need to take the time to do proper research and get those posts as useful as I know they can be.

So! For this post, I’m going to do a round-up of the four best posts of Fix My Story. These are posts that you may have missed, posts that are especially popular (according to the blog stats), or posts that I think deserve another read for indie authors.

First, though, I wanted to let you know that I’ve updated the recent post How to Choose the Right Price for Your Book: Case Study to include a free downloadable template for doing your own pricing research. Special thanks to Eliza for commenting on the post and suggesting it!

And now, without further ado, here are the best four posts of Fix My Story! Continue reading The Best of Fix My Story →

Two Ideas for Authors on Facebook

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Two Ideas for Facebook

For authors trying to use Facebook in their marketing efforts, it can seem overwhelming. That’s why I often advocate a step-by-step method: Learn just one Facebook “best practice” or attempt just one experiment at a time. With this approach, you’ll be able to master each technique and build your Facebook marketing prowess slowly over time, the same way you learned how to do almost anything. And so, for this article, I’m going to give you two ideas for using Facebook effectively as an author. One is just a theory for you to play with, while the other is a proven way to make your page more professional. Let’s jump right in. Continue reading Two Ideas for Authors on Facebook →

How to Choose the Right Price for Your Book: Case Study

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Choose the Right Price Case Study

A couple of weeks ago I finished up a series on choosing the right price for your book, looking at a number of different factors that you can use when setting your price. Today, I’d like to turn all of that theory into a more real-world example with a case study.

We’re going to be looking at a hypothetical science fiction novel. This novel can also be classified into the time travel sub-genre, and it’s about 350 pages long. We’ll also say that it’s been on Amazon for a little while now and has five reviews.

What I’m going to look at in this article is the techniques from the third part in the series on choosing your book’s price. Those are the process of gathering data about similar books and doing research on what is considered a fair price by your audience. Continue reading How to Choose the Right Price for Your Book: Case Study →

Four Don’ts (Plus One Do) for Authors on Facebook

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Four Don'ts Cover Image

You’ve decided that to succeed as a self-published author, you’re going to need a Facebook page. Good for you! But now you might be a little bit confused about how it works and what you should do. Don’t worry! Here are four don’ts and one do that will help you use Facebook as an author.

Don’t Use Your Personal Profile

I really can’t believe how many authors I’ve seen using a personal Facebook profile as an author page. They change their name to include the word author and off they go. Unfortunately, there are a few things wrong with this approach. Continue reading Four Don’ts (Plus One Do) for Authors on Facebook →

How to Choose the Right Price for Your Book, Part 3

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How to Choose the Right Price for Your Book, Part 3

It’s time for more ideas for pricing your self-published book! In this third part in the series, I want to show you how to look at your market to find data that will help you choose a good price. This process can be a little bit time-consuming, but it’s very much worth the effort.

Look at Similar Books

When you’re bringing your book to market, it’s important to consider the expectations of the market based on existing books for sale. It’s highly unlikely that your book is something in a completely new category, which is to your advantage. Let’s look at how you can gather data from books similar to yours to help you decide how to price your own book. Continue reading How to Choose the Right Price for Your Book, Part 3 →

How to Choose the Right Price for Your Book, Part 2

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How to Choose the Right Price for Your Book, Part 2

Welcome to the second part in this series on choosing the right price for your book. This time, we’re going to look at the concept of markup, specifically when it comes to pricing a paperback and leaving room in your price for sales. But first, let’s take a quick look at the concept of “pretty” pricing.

“Pretty” Pricing

“Pretty” pricing is the idea that certain prices look better to customers than others. You can obviously choose any price you want, but research has indicated that ending a price in .95 or .99 may psychologically influence customers to feel like they are getting a better deal. For that reason I will be rounding all prices in this post to the nearest .95. (Why not .99? Well, because this is “pretty” pricing and I think .95 is prettier.)

And with that out of the way, let’s look at how to choose a price for a paperback.

Continue reading How to Choose the Right Price for Your Book, Part 2 →