Mind Your Business for Authors

Unlock Success in Direct Sales for Authors: Answer these Three Questions! https://www.notion.so/joesolari/Joe-Solari-s-Direct-Sales-Checklist-21852e183d2d48bb819338a7b6d99c92?pvs=4In this podcast, Joe Solari discusses the considerations and preparations authors need to make before diving into direct sales. He addresses important questions such as identifying the target customer, defining the brand promise, and aligning the sales acquisition strategy with the brand promise. Joe provides insights on the challenges and potential pitfalls of direct sales, emphasizing the need for a clear understanding of the customer's needs and a well-aligned strategy. He also explores pricing strategies and the importance of valuing one's work. If you are an author exploring the world of direct sales, this video will help you make informed decisions and maximize your chances of success.

A review of the survey results of the 2022 Keystone reader survey.

This is a replay of an interview I did with Joanna Penn for the Creative Penn Podcast.We talk about sustainable business practices and me taking over the 20 Books Vegas event in 2024.

In this episode, we will be taking a closer look at the impact of artificial intelligence on the world of publishing, specifically in relation to authors. We will discuss some of the most pressing concerns surrounding this topic, including the fear that technology may one day be used to sabotage the publishing industry, and how AI may be used to promote biased or misleading information. We also examine the benefits of AI, such as its ability to optimize search results and help authors more effectively target their audiences. By using AI, authors can gain a better understanding of what their readers want, and tailor their writing to meet those needs. Overall, the impact of AI on publishing is a complex and multifaceted issue that requires careful consideration. Join us as we delve into this fascinating topic and explore the many ways in which AI is changing the way we write and publish. #openai #sudowrite

Visit JoeSolari.comIn this video, we will be taking a closer look at the impact of artificial intelligence on the world of publishing, specifically in relation to authors. We will discuss some of the most pressing concerns surrounding this topic, including the fear that technology may one day be used to sabotage the publishing industry, and how AI may be used to promote biased or misleading information. We also examine the benefits of AI, such as its ability to optimize search results and help authors more effectively target their audiences. By using AI, authors can gain a better understanding of what their readers want, and tailor their writing to meet those needs. Overall, the impact of AI on publishing is a complex and multifaceted issue that requires careful consideration. Join us as we delve into this fascinating topic and explore the many ways in which AI is changing the way we write and publish. #openai #sudowrite

Are you a production editor, copyeditor, or proofreader and you're looking for an artificial intelligence proofing tool to help you improve your audiobook productions?Look no further! In this video, I'm sharing with you how to improve your audiobook productions with an AI proofing tool. Adam Fritz, the CEO of POZOTRON joins me to discuss his company's software as service for audiobook project management and proofing.His company has a software tool designed to make audio production easier, faster, and more efficient. In this video, we'll discuss how you can improve your audiobook production with the help of an AI proofing tool. This tool will help you identify and correct any mistakes in your audio recording before it's sent off for distribution.If you're looking to improve your audiobook production, then this tool is a great way to start. This AI proofing tool can help you identify and correct any mistakes quickly and easily, which will help you produce a better audiobook overall! Positron is a growth stage startup. We've been around since 2017. We're based in Seattle, just outside of Seattle, and our company has a software tool designed to make audio production easier, faster, and more efficient.So regardless of your role in scripted audio production, whether that's an audiobook or otherwise our tool will make a bunch of those steps in the process easier and faster. From, we use AI and machine learning to make pre-production things like pronunciation guides and character planning easier, all the way down to post-production like QC and improving. We have a tool that, that acts just spellcheck does for Microsoft Word only. It checks your Recorded audio to make sure it's recorded. Exactly. Word perfect compared to the book text. So a bunch of things that'll make life a lot easier for O authors to have their audio books produced easier, faster, and at higher quality level. And it doesn't eliminate like human checking, but it really reduces like the. Need for somebody to sit and listen to a 20 hour audiobook all 20 hours. Exactly.Our goal is basically the only thing a person who's doing the human proving needs to pay attention to or the more performant elements like character voices and things like that. Just like when you're typing a document in Microsoft Word, you. Have those little red underlines to tell you when you've made a typo or a spelling mistake. Our tool will do that for the missed words. Added words, and mispronunciations, while you're just paying attention to make sure the story is told in a way that fits the author's vision. Before we like get into looking at the tool, How have being on kind of both sides of this, how has it been for or the feedback been from narrators about using this tool and how it maybe helps them be more productive as well? Yeah, it helped in a number of different ways. I'll start at the pre-production tools, like the pronunciation guide. A lot of narrators do a huge amount. Most narrators do a huge amount of work in the lead up to actually recording their book. So they'll read the book with a highlighter in their hand and highlight every word they don't know how to pronounce, whether that's a complex noun or verb or all the way up to character names. So what our tool does, instead of having to go through and manually high. Those words, it'll pull, our algorithm pulls all the words our algorithm believes. Your average narrator may not know how to pronounce, and then it'll automatically and immediately search those in the Oxford Dictionary four. And we're adding Miriam Webster basically one click. And you have that correct pronunciation back. Makes it much, much simpler to do that process. And then a lot of narrators will actually before. Once they record, before they send their recorded audio back to the, to their client, they'll actually do a first proof themselves. #aiwriting #aiautomation

In Elizabeth Ann West's Do What? How method, AI writing tools help writers ethically create works of genius as a creative director. Check out Elizabeth's AI outlining and co-writingcourse. https://gumroad.com/a/818630867/mvjup Longer video https://youtu.be/M-yIbVOglS8Elizabeth Ann West, an AI specialist, presents the "do what, how" approach to authors wanting to use AI tools in their writing. SudoWrite is a recommended example with powerful features to strengthen and edit writing. We discuss the ethical considerations that should be taken into account with the use of these tools. Elizabeth offers two classes to learn how to work with AI: Intro to Collaborating with AI for Writing and Intro to AI Art. Get step-by-step instructions on how to use the technology and tailored advice at an affordable rate - unlock the power of collaboration between authors and AI! Elizabeth makes using new AI tools to write books accessible and has developed courses to help people take advantage of the ever-changing tools. Her Do What? How method involves using a verb to tell AI what to do, as well as providing the genre and other details. She recommends SudoWrite for its commercial algorithms, its First Draft feature, and for editing. Autocrit and Pro Writing Aid can also be used for editing. AI writing tools can help writers improve their grammar and sentence construction. Finally, writers should use AI as a junior writer, and they act as creative director rather than letting AI write all the words so readers can appreciate the author's genius. #sudowrite #aiwriting #chatgpt #ai

Are you wondering what makes the difference between your story being in the top 0.1% of best-selling books and screenplays? John Truby joins us to talk about the anatomy of genres and how to use genre-specific beats from multiple genres to create iconic stories that transcend genre. John Truby is a story coach, a master of genre, and a believer that any story could be made into something powerful and memorable. He has studied best-selling books and screenplays, looking for the common thread that ran through them all. Truby studied the different genres and the beats that each of them contained, looking for common elements that could be used to create stories that transcended genre. Truby believes that the key to creating powerful stories was to use beats from multiple genres. It was the combination of different genres that made stories rich and complex. He writes in The "Anatomy of Genres" that by using the appropriate genres and their individual beats combined with the right structure, any story could be crafted into an iconic tale. Truby provides the tools to help aspiring storytellers find their own unique path to success. He teaches how to identify the various genres, the beats they contained and how to weave them together in a way that made the story exciting, memorable, and unpredictable. His methods had helped many of his students become some of the top 0.1% of best-selling books and screenplays. To learn more, go to https://truby.com/

In another episode of our quarterly updates, we review Craig's business and talk about multi-tasking. Being interrupted and distractions will always be with us. We can train ourselves to not to be multi-taskers and focus much better.We also talk about all things Las Vegas as we are both ready for the 20 Books Las Vegas Conference.

Elizabeth Ann West joins the show today to discuss how she uses Sudowrite to inspire her creativity and improve the quality of her work. We talk about the technology and give examples of the various features.Elizabeth Ann West joins the show today to discuss how she uses Sudowrite to inspire her creativity and improve the quality of her work. We talk about the technology and give examples of the various features.Overall, Sudowrite is a powerful tool for writers of all kinds, and it is definitely worth checking out if you're looking for a new way to inspire and improve your writing.

Are you a plotter or a pantser? Doesn't matter this process works for both and Tony Lee shares how he uses writing backwards to drive his mid six-figure publishing business.

Paddy Finn first found financial freedom by writing Science Fiction. To level up the challenge,e why not pivot to creating material for tabletop role-playing games? Too easyLet's do it while being a digital nomad with a family of five.Good thing Paddy is a quick study and can understand markets quickly. He is currently running a $200,000 Kickstarter campaign that was funded in 30 minutes. http://kck.st/3AswCuVIf you're thinking about building a creative business on Kickstarter, make yourself your favorite beverage, get your notebook and pen, and sit down for an amazing breakdown of building an audience on Kickstarter.

What’s better than getting the latest update on the current publishing market trends? Learning about new categories to exploit on Amazon.But wait, there’s more…Alex Newton drops knowledge on what’s going on in Romance, Science Fiction, and Mystery, Thriller, Suspense.If you’re serious about understanding how publishing works and the forces of supply and demand, then take the time to watch Alex present the most up-to-date intelligence on the KDP publishing market.His report includes ranking results, estimates of the Kindle payout pool, and so much more.https://k-lytics.com/

Today’s guest is Pierre Alex Jeanty. The author of the best-selling books Her and Him. He has been a full-time poet and self-help author for several years.What makes him different is that he’s making money. His business is very different than most indie authors. The business generates seven figures and is predominantly print books sold directly.We talk about how his mindset is that he is running a publishing business, not just selling books. We dive deep into the direct sales model, merchandising for authors, fulfillment, and customer experience.

Evan Gow from Story Origin shows us a new service and process to run a beta reading team. Learn why this is important for an author then how this process reduces the pain and overwhelm that typically comes with getting comments from readers and turning that into an improved manuscript.

Every three months or so Craig Martelle is a guest/host to share what's up with his fiction business. While Craig earns a six figure income from writing he also runs the largest indie author conference in the world.We talk about both.Join us to get an update on where craig is on his journey. What's working and what's not. THe latest on Vegas and a bunch of other stuff that we chat about when we do these calls.

Let's talk content. Let's talk productivity. Let's talk with Chelle Honiker the technology and productivity maven that's at the controls of the newest hottest publication.Learn how the magazine has gone from an idea to six high quality issues distributed over ten channels in less than a year.Besides the magazine being a great resource for indie authors. Chelle shares how she uses project management, technology, and a team of 24 authors to pump out an issue every thirty days.You can get a FREE seven day trial here: https://indieauthormagazine.com/?wpam_id=26

Today Russell Nohelty joins me to discuss his method of using kickstarter to publish. This isn't just the same old get your book paid for by others, but a definitive plan to grow your audience and remain as close to revenue neutral as possible.We have talked though audio launches, games, comics and merchandise but this is the first time we have someone focused just plain old books.If you want to learn more of How Russell does it you can back his kickstarter about kickstarting books. https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/lovelightlioness/kickstarter-for-authors

Would you be happy selling a half a million dollars of books at a 94% margin and get paid in two days?That's what your business could look like if you adopt a direct sales model for publishing.Our guest today is Katie Cross an indie writer that took control of her sales funnel and dove into direct sales head first. Check out these linkswebsite: www.katiecrossbooks.comfree offer: welcome.kcrosswriting.com/welcomeBeyond the juicy margins the connection to your fanbase is much stronger because you have transparency on the buyer's journey. Hang out with us and learn about direct sales as a go to market strategy.

Kate Baucherel joins the show today to discuss NFTs, Blockchain and crypto technologies that will be impacting publishing.