Authors Academy

2014 is coming to an end.

In fact, for some folks, the year is already over.

They figure: if it ain’t done by now, it ain’t gonna get done!

I don’t agree with that philosophy, though. Not at all.

You see, while many people essentially take six weeks off between Thanksgiving and New Years, successful people recognize that this period is ripe with opportunity.

Take the example of marketing your books.

Many authors are racing to implement some tactics quickly to “get the word out” about their books, thinking that this is their best chance to generate some meaningful sales.

It’s the holidays, after all… which means people are buying things, right?

But as Jim Best discussed with me on last month’s Authors Academy call, all the work he does to generate his impressive holiday sales comes BEFORE the holidays!

(Jim’s sold more than 70,000 copies of his books to date, so he knows what he’s talking about.)

One of […]

I’m going to go out on a limb and say that Wednesday’s Authors Academy call was one of our best ever!

Jim Best totally blew me away with his insight and his experience marketing his books.

Jim’s sold 70,000 copies to date… so he knows of what he speaks.

His closing thought was that first and foremost, your book has to be good.

Otherwise, you can’t get the power of word-of-mouth marketing working for you.

Jim’s books happen to be great—and they make great gifts!

You can check out his entire catalog here.

I recommend starting with The Shopkeeper—it’s lots of fun.

Meanwhile, you can definitely file the interview under “can’t-miss.”

But only Authors Academy members have access to the recording of this call to review on-demand.

If you’re not a member, give yourself a much-deserved early holiday gift by clicking here.

If you’re at all serious about selling copies of your book, you’d be just plain nuts to […]

How would you like to sell 1,000 copies of your book during the upcoming holiday season?

I know I would!

Next week in the Authors Academy I’ll be interviewing James D. Best, author of the Steve Dancy series of westerns including his latest, Jenny’s Revenge, scheduled for release in February.

Jim’s sold more than 70,000 copies of his books to date, which includes a few one-off titles in addition to his extremely popular westerns.

Jim published the first Steve Dancy tale, The Shopkeeper, back in 2007.

He was a complete unknown at the time, having published only one book previously. The Shopkeeper was his first work of fiction.

His book sold reasonably well at launch, but his initial sales tapered off after a bit—he’d reached the end of his existing platform.

Most authors give up at that point, figuring they’ve sold as many as they’re going to.

Not Jim. He went to work, and by the following Christmas, […]

… and I feel fine!

This article (sent to me by client and friend Byron Thompson) predicts the demise of publishers at the hands of retailers like Amazon and Apple.

Meanwhile, this article predicts the decline of—you guessed it—retailers like Amazon and Apple, at least when it comes to selling books and other media like music.

These types of articles sometimes make us wring our hands and fret: what, oh what, are we to do?

How will we ever survive without NY publishers… or even worse, without retailers like the mighty Amazon and the amazing Apple?

I think there’s nothing to worry about, and let me tell you a story that illustrates my thinking why:

Back when I was in middle school, I loved reading Michael Crichton sci-fi thrillers like Congo, The Andromeda Strain, and Sphere.

This was around the time when the first Jurassic Park movie came out.

One time, I remember being so wrapped […]

A lot of people would have you believe that blogging is passé, or even dead. They think if you’re not on the “bleeding edge” of technology, you’re wasting your time.

“Never have so many said so little to so few,” they say. And they have a point: many, many people’s blogs are read by their family and close friends only.

Is blogging dead? No, but writing a boring blog is!

You may have noticed that we’ve been playing with a new format here at Wheatmark for the last couple of days.

That’s because I just attended a GKIC Fast Implementation Bootcamp in Tempe last week.

Dave Dee, one of my mentors, taught a course on email marketing that was just incredible… but when I got home and reviewed my notes, I realized I’d already learned these exact same techniques… four years ago!

I just hadn’t bothered to implement what I’d learned.

The moral of the story? You’ve […]