Take Permission

The Right Tools & Mindset For Success

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11 Reasons You Won't Write a Book This Year

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1. You’re using the wrong tool.

By using a program where you can only see your current page and your entire project is on the same layer you lack perspective on your progress. You should be using Scrivener (Mac or PC). Use coupon code selfpublishing to save 20%.

2. You’re waiting to be picked

“Opportunities are drawn to people in motion.” My friend Jon Acuff says this because he’s always in motion so he always has opportunities. If you want to get picked by a publisher you need to be blogging, guest posting, writing shorter works, writing magazine articles, writing, writing, writing. Nowhere in the book publishing process should you be waiting.

Early To Rise Print Box
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3. You don’t understand how fear works

Fear serves as a road sign that you’re going in the right direction. Fear isn’t a a stop sign, it’s a mile marker that we’re making progress. If fear is present then keep going. If you’re scared then you’re on to something. Push through the fear. If it isn’t scary then it isn’t valuable.
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The Only Four Tools You Need to Self-publish Your Book (Free Webinar)

Tuesday February 18th 1PM Central

You can’t create a good product without the right tools so on Tuesday at 1pm Central I’m hosting a free webinar to show you the only four tools you need to self-publish your book.

Click here to receive the webinar registration by email.

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You’ll learn
– How to build your email list before and after you launch your book
– How to write more proficiently using the best program for writing
– How to create cover art for less than $40
– How to create a dynamic book that people read & listen to
– How to charge more for your book by adding bonus content

[gss-content-box]If this post was helpful you can get them all via email by clicking here.[/gss-content-box]

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Why most days fear wins

Most days in my life fear wins. It’s time for that to change so let’s spend a few minutes understanding fear and how it works.

Fear whispers because yelling is too obvious.

  • “It’ll never work.”
  • “You’re not the right messenger.”
  • “They’ll find out you’re a fake.”
  • “They won’t buy it, literally or figuratively.”

fear face

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How to achieve a distraction free writing experience in a feature rich program – Scrivener

If you want to be a writer you need to write. To write most of us need to eliminate distractions. In the past I’ve used programs like OmmWriter and ByWord to keep the distractions at bay. Somewhere in the past I forgot that the program I use to actually compile my books also provides a distraction free writing experience. The key is to use the “Compose” view in Scrivener.

Be Like Mike (Hyatt)
My friend Michael Hyatt recently announced he’s using Scrivener as his writing studio.

 

Attain Distraction Free Writing & Get 20% off Scrivener
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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