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CONFERENCE TAKEAWAY
by Sarah Noffke (TopShelf Columnist)
Twitter @RealSarahNoffke | SarahNoffke.com
www.TopShelfMagazine.net
Amazon ads. Guess what? That lovely
author, who I’m very proud and happy
for, beats me in ranking every freaking
day! And a few years ago he was
making $10 a month.
So don’t quit. That’s what I took
away from the conference. If the book
isn’t selling then make changes. If the
ad isn’t working then make changes. If
you want to sell more books then write
more. I met a few of the top ten science
fiction writers on Amazon and guess
what they do for twelve hours a day,
every single day? If you guess write,
then you get a gold sticker. I know this
The key to selling books, what I learned
from the top dogs in the industry, people like
Anderle, was really strange and simple:
Don’t quit.
That’s it. That was the one thing that
linked every single six figure author I spoke
with. Now, I realize you’re rolling your eyes
at me right now. I’ve got more success
secrets and will be expanding, but only a
little. This really isn’t complicated.
I learned about an author who was
making $10 a month off of his books. I
don’t know about you, but I can’t function
on $10 a day. The reason this author made
this article is he’s the supreme example of
how success works. He redid his covers.
That kind of worked. He reworked his copy.
More success. He ran a few Facebook and seems obvious, but it was actually pretty
inspiring to me. Those who succeed keep
going, aren’t afraid to change and are
willing. They are willing to look at the data,
make adjustments and keep going. Of these
incredibly successful authors I spoke with,
every single one had a flop. That’s right.
They’d all written books that didn’t do well
at first or at all. And every single one made
changes or moved on until they had it right.
So don’t quit. And stay true to yourself,
just as Anderle did. Oh, and buy blue hair
dye if you want to be an author. That was
a common thing amongst this eccentric
bunch. So much blue hair I thought I was
going colorblind.
I’ve just returned from a three day
conference in Las Vegas. This writer
conference was put on by Michael Anderle
and Craig Martelle and it wasn’t exactly
what I was expecting. It was more. To
describe all that I learned about books,
marketing and writing would take up all the
pages of this lovely magazine. Since that
can’t happen, because we have to leave
room for other people and books, I’ll keep it
brief and just cover what I found most
useful for authors, booksellers and readers.
Some may have heard of Anderle. Some
maybe not. He’s an indie author who self-
proclaimed “did everything wrong” to start
with. However, Anderle did something
incredibly right when he self-published
Death Becomes Her two years ago. He
wrote the story he wanted to read. It’s a
beautiful idea first made popular by Toni
Morrison. In a short time, Anderle’s success
as an indie author skyrocketed and now he
serves as a mentor to many of us writers.
Anderle created a Facebook group in
2016 called 20Booksto50K inspired by the
idea that it would take twenty books to put
him in financial success. This awesome
author hasn’t written twenty books by
himself yet, but I can vouch that he’s found
that success he was going after.
It was the 20Booksto50K conference that I
recently attended and I’m still trying to digest
so many of the things I learned. This group
seeks to inspire, encourage and also teach
authors at all levels. It was coordinated by
Craig Martelle, a fellow science fiction writer
who produces so fast that it will make your
head spin. I’m fairly certain that Martelle
isn’t really a man, but rather a robot who
doesn’t sleep or eat. Actually, come to think
of it, I didn’t see him eat or drink once while
at the conference. Mystery solved.
As an author, just as a retailer, I struggle
with marketing and selling books every day.
Every. Day. It seems just when I’ve got a
marketing formula that works, the industry
changes, algorithms go awry and mercury dips
into retrograde. Darn retrograde. However,
it was comforting in an odd sort of way to
know that EVERY author has the same
struggles. What was incredibly encouraging
was the ones who were succeeding. They
had a secret and I learned it. And if you
lean in close, I’ll share it with you.
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