Take Permission

The Right Tools & Mindset For Success

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Why five star reviews aren’t as powerful as four star reviews on Amazon

Post 5 of 26 of The Self-Publishing Series


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Reviews are the reader’s emotional reactions
Reviews are a unique currency. As I said yesterday you can have a great conversation with your readers through their reviews but today I want to look at the power of reviews for potential buyers. Do different reviews have more credibility than others? The image below is a snapshot of my book’s reviews. Which reviews do you want to read? Here’s how I believe most potential buyers navigate the reviews of books and why it matters to you as an author.

80/20 Rule:
Buyers will look at the overall balance of reviews. If there are only five star reviews then the book has no credibility. It needs 80% five star reviews and the remaining 20% will likely be spread out through one through four star reviews. Michael Hyatt’s book Platform is a great example of this. Some people are just NOT going to like your book and others are going to love it. If a book has more of a 50/50 split between five star and the other 50% between one through four stars then buyers are going to run away.
[Read more…]

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Why authors should respond to reviews of their book on Amazon

Post 4 of 26 of The Self-Publishing Series


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Ignore the haters
Let’s start with who not to respond to.

“No one who leaves you a one star review does it to make you a better writer.” – Jon Acuff

Don’t respond to people who leave you one star reviews. They’re not rational. They can’t be converted. (Tweet That) If one of your readers wants to respond to them then that’s good television (fun to watch) but you should not interact with them. 99% of your reviews won’t be one star reviews. Respond to the two-five star reviews but ignore the one star reviews.

This guy says I have guts for charging $7.99 for crap. His review received 9 comments.

Every review is an opportunity to have a conversation
Amazon makes it very easy for you to see who left a review of your book and at the time of this post they don’t restrict you from responding in any way. So why do most authors avoid responding to reader reviews? I have no idea. It’s a public page and they’re talking about your work so why not say thanks, ask follow up questions or even be stupid generous in a few cases?

Every review that someone leaves you is a third party endorsement or criticism of your work. Why not show your appreciation for that person? If they praise your work then respond. If they have legitimate criticism about your book then respond accordingly.

I appreciate your review of my book

How to respond to positive feedback
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Why a free chapter is a lousy thing to give away if you want to sell a book

Post 3 of 26 of The Self-Publishing Series


 
The days of being teased are over
Do we really want to play the warehouse food sample game? I appreciate that you want to show me a bit of your book but you’re going to give me one chapter? First, it’s not hard to write one good chapter. Second, giving away a chapter of your book is like giving someone one digit of your phone number (Tweet That). Is it really your number? Sure. Does it move the relationship forward? Not really. My advice is to be stupid generous and see what happens. We’ll get to that later.

Why your free chapter has absolutely no value
Giving one chapter away has lost its value because of, you guessed it, Amazon.com. I can download a “free sample” of every book in the Kindle library and Amazon doesn’t require me to join your email list. I also get to see the reviews of other people who have already purchased the book to help me decide if I want to download that free sample.

What else you should give your readers
Two things are usually happening in the exchange for the chapter. Most authors, if they’re smart, are using the bait of a free chapter to get your email address. As the book gets closer to release or when the author develops other products related to their book they can communicate with you. The first benefit of the free chapter is creating a relationship. The second goal of giving away the chapter is to sell more books at launch. This is where I think authors miss an opportunity. If authors really want to sell more books at launch they must out give Amazon. They should give away different forms of those chapters (audio specifically) or some of those products they were going to deliver later.

Here’s an example.
Click here to see the example

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The hidden fee every Amazon author must factor into their publishing; Digital delivery costs

Post 2 of 26 of The Self-Publishing Series

Amazon’s hidden fee can cost you a lot of money
If you choose the 70% royalty option Amazon.com charges you for each megabyte of your document. Here is their explanation from their KDP Pricing Page.

Delivery Costs are equal to the number of megabytes we determine your Digital Book file contains, multiplied by the Delivery Cost rate listed below.

Amazon.com: US $0.15/MB
India: US $0.12/MB
Amazon CA: CAD $0.15/MB
Brazil: BRL R$.30/MB
Amazon.co.uk: UK £0.10/MB
Amazon.de: €0,12/MB
Amazon.fr: €0,12/MB
Amazon.es: €0,12/MB
Amazon.it: €0,12/MB
Amazon.co.jp: ¥1/MB

We will round file sizes up to the nearest kilobyte. The minimum Delivery Cost for a Digital Book will be US$0.01 for sales in US Dollars, CAD$0.01 for sales in CAD Dollars, £0.01 for sales in GB Pounds, ¥1 in JPY, R$0.01 for sales in Brazilian Reais, and €0.01 for sales in Euros, regardless of file size.

Again, this only applies to your book if you choose the 70% royalty option which is determined by the price of your book. This is a fee that nine out of ten self-publishing authors don’t know about.(Click to tweet that) If you’re going to self-publish you need to know about this fee because it can really cut into your profits.

How to calculate your royalty – Guy Kawasaki’s Royalty Calculator
Guy Kawasaki wrote a great book about self-publishing called APE: Author, Publisher, Entrerpreneur and one of the bonuses he generously created is a royalty calculator so can find out an estimate of how much your get after the platform takes its percentage and the cost of delivering the book. That’s right, Amazon charges you for delivering the digital file just like they charge you shipping for a physical item. To find out how much the file size effects your profits click on the image below and play with the calculator.

The calculator creates an estimate and gratefully in my experience it overestimates the cost. I make approximately $5.40 on each copy of my $7.99 Kindle book but the calculator estimates it to be a profit of $4.83. The important thing to understand is that the delivery fee is very real and must be considered in the creation and publication of your book. Click on the image below to visit Guy’s calculator

How do you avoid paying too much in digital delivery fees?
1. Use fewer images possible. The text of your document will not add considerably to your file size. Images quickly add to your file size.
2. Price your book appropriately. If you price your book in the 35% royalty range you will avoid the digital delivery fees entirely. That’s my understanding of the KDP Pricing Page.


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Four things you must have to self-publish

Post 1 of 26 of The Self-Publishing Series

Permission
Every creative journey begins with a desire. Most are ended by judgement. Before one word is typed judgement shuts down the journey. You need to get permission for your project and you need to give that permission to yourself. We’re the person judging and we’re the person capable of taking permission. Call it creative suicide, self-defeat or wussing out, but we end most of our dreams ourselves. Most creative journeys end not because of someone else but because of the creator

A few years ago I switched my web site from AndyTraub.com to TakePermission.com because I needed to focus in on one idea. To self-publish you need to take permission and then do the work. (Tweet that) There’s no waiting in line anymore. You’re not going to wait to get picked. You’re taking permission to move forward, to invest in yourself and to create something from nothing.

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Time
For three and half hours I sat in this chair knowing that I needed to write these words. I’ve done something else for the last 210 minutes. You don’t know how to twiddle your thumbs. I don’t even know if twiddle is a word. You’re not bored because you’re busy. Doing things isn’t our problem. Doing the right things is our problem. (Click to tweet that) If you want to write a book and publish it yourself you need to make time. You can get up earlier or you can stay up later. You can blog your way to a book or you can take an on-line course that helps you get the audience your writing deserves. No matter what you do you have to stop doing something else to write. If you had enough time and desire you’d have already finished your book.