Write. Publish. Repeat.: The No-Luck Guide to Self-Publishing Success

361 Pages·2013·1.52 MB·English

by  Johnny B. Truant

Contents
Copyright
Your Bonus Copy of Writing Online
Untitled Document
The Note Where We Tell You About This Book's Voice
The Note Where We Talk About Fiction vs. Nonfiction
The Note Where We Describe Our Evil Ulterior Motive
PART One: Prefatory Matters
Chapter One: Who We Are
Chapter Two: Who We Think You Are
Chapter Three: Terms You Should Know
PART Two: Understanding the Self-Publishing Landscape
Chapter Four: The Good News and the Bad News
The Discoverability Shift
Chapter Five: The List of Truths
Chapter Six: The List of Myths
PART Three: Preparing Your Books and Making Readers Love You
Chapter Seven: How to Avoid Looking Like an Amateur
Chapter Eight: Creating Professional Products Part 1: Pre-Production
Chapter Nine: Creating Professional Products Part 2: Writing
Chapter Ten: Creating Professional Products Part 3: Editing
Chapter Eleven: Creating Professional Products Part 4: Post-Production
PART Four: Marketing Your Work
How to Market Like a Lover
Chapter Twelve: Gathering Your Tribe
Chapter Thirteen: Building Relationships and Having Conversations
Chapter Fourteen: Understanding Funnels
Chapter Fifteen: Email Marketing the Non-Sleazy Way
Chapter Sixteen: All About Reviews
Chapter Seventeen: Ways to Supercharge Your Marketing
PART Five: Thinking Like a New Wave Publisher
Go To Where the Puck Is Headed
Chapter Eighteen: Mistakes That Writers Make (and That Publishers Usually
Don't)
Chapter Nineteen: Things You Can Probably Stop Worrying About
Chapter Twenty: How To Kill It
Chapter Twenty-One: Write. Publish. Repeat.
Are You a Repeater?
Appendix: Interviews with Successful Indie Authors
Introduction
Hugh Howey
CJ Lyons
David Gaughran
Ed Robertson
Joanna Penn
Do You Want to Know What it Was REALLY Like?
What We've Written
About the Authors
Your Bonus Copy of Writing Online
Write. Publish. Repeat.
By Sean Platt &
Johnny B. Truant
Copyright © 2013 by Sean Platt & Johnny B. Truant. All rights reserved.
Reproduction in whole or part of this publication without express written
consent is strictly prohibited. The authors greatly appreciate you taking the time
to read our work. Please consider leaving a review wherever you bought the
book, or telling your friends about it, to help us spread the word.
Thank you for supporting our work.
Your Bonus Copy of Writing Online
IF YOU’RE READING THIS PAGE, you were one of the first writers to ever
buy Write. Publish. Repeat. THANK YOU!!!
To show our appreciation, we want to give you Sean’s freelancer’s companion
book, Writing Online for free.
You’ll find the link to get it on the very last page in this book.
For Robin and Cindy, who made (and make) it all possible.
The Note Where We Tell You About This Book's Voice
AFTER A YEAR AND A half of producing the weekly Self Publishing Podcast
and publishing millions of words, Sean and I (Johnny) decided we should create
SPP: The Book, wherein we’d take the podcast’s core philosophies and best tips
for crafting a smart, sustainable, and potentially lucrative writing career and set
them down in a single bottom-line volume.
Lucky you: That’s the book you’re holding.
David Wright, SPP’s third host, isn’t one of this book’s primary authors,
but he did contribute — and because he’s part of our story, his presence is with
us on every page. But even with only Sean and I writing, trying to include
multiple “voices” in this book proved immediately difficult and totally annoying.
The use of “we” also got clumsy fast. To keep things simple and easy to read, I
decided to arrogantly wrestle control into my corner and write with my own
voice as the primary point of view.
As you read this book, know that all “I” and “me” mentions are Johnny.
Like in real life, Sean is all over the place and never shuts up. In this book, he
shows up right in the middle of my sentences (LIKE RIGHT NOW). But that
would be punishment to suffer through a see-sawing voice. I’m writing the rough
draft (like always, because Sean is lazy) so we’re writing from my perspective.
If you’re a podcast listener, you already know all about Sean’s slobber and can
clearly see that this is for the best (Johnny’s not being mean, I’m still me).
The Note Where We Talk About Fiction vs. Nonfiction
WE’RE PRIMARILY FICTION AUTHORS, SO much of what we say in this
book will skew toward fiction writing. But if you’re a nonfiction author, take
heart! We’re nonfiction authors, too (evidence of this is in your hands or on your
screen), so we have a ton to say about nonfiction as well.
If you’re a nonfiction writer and find yourself in the middle of a section
detailing series novels or story narrative, we suggest you keep reading. The best
nonfiction is full of story. This book has plenty of story in addition to its how-to,
and Sean’s book Writer Dad is nonfiction crafted around a personal narrative.
Even if you ignore the story sections, everything pertaining to pre-and post-
production, marketing, editing, the self-publishing process, setting goals,
thinking outside the box, and so much more will still apply directly to you.
And remember, if you’re having trouble researching your nonfiction
book, you can always stick a unicorn somewhere inside it. That way, you can
write off factual errors as part of the story.
The Note Where We Describe Our Evil Ulterior
Motive
WE’D LOVE TO GET SOMETHING out of the way up front.
This book is chock-full of our best advice on how to build a successful
career in self-publishing, or “indie publishing” if you prefer (we totally do). It’s
a logical, rational, workmanlike approach that has nothing to do with ninja tricks
or magic beans. It’s not about gaming the system, sliming your way to the top, or
getting rich quick. It is, in short, advice that will actually help you get where you
most want to go, if you’re willing to wear your overalls and get to work (you
don’t actually have to wear overalls, though Sean’s mom would love it if you
did). This book is the written version of our Self Publishing Podcast, which we
record every week and which goes out to thousands of writers who often send us
beautiful e-mails about getting unstuck, fighting past their fear, publishing their
best work, and starting a journey toward living their dreams.
Most writing examples used throughout this book are our own. This is
done for two reasons. First, these are the examples we have. If we’re going to
describe a product funnel, it makes most sense to tell you how The Beam,
Yesterday’s Gone and Fat Vampire are organized because we don’t know how
someone else organized his or her funnel, or how well the approach worked. We
also make the point throughout this book that successful indies are, above
everything else, smart businesspeople. Yes, they’re artists … but if they’re not
businesspeople as well, they have little chance competing against the writers
who are willing to work at the intersection of art and commerce. This book will
tell you everything you need to know in order to become one of those smart
businesspeople, but please understand that the book in your hands — in addition
to being what we hope is the most comprehensive, absolute best self-publishing
guide you’ll ever read — is also a part of our business strategy. One of the
things we want to do with this book is to (wait for it) raise the profile of our
other books.
We promise to never actively promote our stuff, and use our books only
as examples. We promise to keep things informational and helpful, but as on our
podcast, we will mention them. Often. Does that seem like a fair trade, using
those details to explain how we published more than 1.5 million words and built
three successful product lines (with our busy hands in a fourth) in this last year
alone? We also discuss the same people throughout the book, either authors
we’ve worked with or had on our show. We put as much of our personal
experience as we could in these pages, but it isn’t a research project. The book
was already sprawling enough. Our experience doesn’t begin and end with the
three of us, but we can speak with most authority about those projects we know
best.
We also swear. Not a lot. Less than on the totally NSFW Self Publishing
Podcast (someone really should stop us), and less than in most of our books,
though not all of them. We don’t swear in Unicorn Western, except for our
made-up word dagnit. Nor do we swear in any of the children’s literature in
production (written under the pen name Guy Incognito). But we do use some
four-letter favorites when it makes sense. To do our best work, this book should
read as much like we’re sitting on the barstool beside you as possible. And if we
were side by side, and comfortable, with our children out of the room, we would
probably call an asshole an asshole, if he was being an asshole.
Lastly, we will repeat ourselves. This can’t be avoided. Write. Publish.
Repeat. is a reference book, and while many authors will want to read it straight
through, others won’t. You might read it through the first time and then use it
only as reference after that. We’ve written a book that is at least 90 percent
strategies to 10 percent tactics (more later on what that means and why it
absolutely matters). Each section must stand on its own without being reliant on
something you may or may not have read 50 pages before. We’ve taken great
care to curb this as much as possible, but if you’re reading straight through,
please do expect some minor repetition.
Before we delve in, we’d like to make a request: If you are the kind of
person who will complain and leave bad reviews because we mention our own
work in explaining how we do what we do (or swearing, which we are right now
telling you we are going to very occasionally do) please close this book and
return it now.
If that’s not you, let’s get started.
This book might make for one hell of a life-changing ride.