My notes from the book "Authority by Nathan Barry".

0-intro.md

Authority

A Step-By-Step Guide To Self-Publishing

Become an expert, build a following, and gain financial independence.

by Nathan Barry

Table of Contents

1. On Writing
2. Basic Marketing
3. Writing, Lots of Writing
4. Pricing & Packaging
5. Design & Formatting
6. Prepping for Launch
7. The Sales Page
8. E-Commerce
9. The Launch (And Beyond)
10. Closing Thoughts

1-on-writing.md

On Writing

Write consistently. Make consistent progress every day. A decent length for an eBook is 25,000 words. At 1,000 words a day (2 or 3 pages) for 30 days you would have 30,000 words. Do some editing and cut down your content (which is necessary), and you have a book written in 30 days.

Why write?

• It is a great way to teach people.
• Teaching and sharing expands your reach and influence.
• People remember and respect those who have taught them.
• To be known you must teach.

IMPORTANT: If you know a skill that other people use to make money, you can make a living by teaching that skill.

Find out about Pat Flynn.

Finding a topic

A good place to start is by writing about an area in which other people perceive you to be an expert.

• You don't have to be an expert to teach.
• Get in the habit of sharing everything you know.

Establishing expertise

If you want to make a living from your teaching, you should be perceived as an expert. A few quotes from past clients combined with some in-depth blog posts or tutorials is enough to give you the credibility to write your book. Writing a book gets you half way there.

• Name your book.
• Set up a landing page.
• Start calling yourself the author of "xxxx".
• ... and people will take you a lot more seriously even before your book is published.

Tim Ferriss says that to become perceived as an expert:

• Join trade organizations with official-sounding names.
• Read and summarize the top three best-selling books on your topic.
• Write for other sites and magazines.
• Give a talk at a local university and local offices of large companies.
• Piggyback on other people for press.

Finding a market

Two factors define whether or not your book can be successful.

1. Does it teach a skill that other people use to make money?
2. Do those people gather and communicate online?

TIP: An easy way to see if potential readers are searching for similar products online is with Google's keyword research tool. Google Keyword Tool

Competition

You should be concerned if there are no competitors. Competition shows that there is a market. Embrace competition.

Writer's block

When faced with writer’s block, lower your standards and keep going. ~ Sandra Tsing Loh

Seth Godin claims he never gets writer's block. Why? Because he writes like he talks. And "No one ever gets talker's block."

Miscellaneous

• Don't wait to be picked
• Sacha Greif
• Step-by-step UI Design

2-basic-marketing.md

Basic Marketing

Once you create a product, how do you get people to buy it?

Traditional marketing techniques are inadequate for building an audience for your self-published books.

Marketing that works

• 37signals built their audience by teaching.
• Teach everything you know.

A Landing Page

Does anyone want to read your book?

Before you spend months of your life creating something, you may want to test for some demand. Put up a landing page to enable your potential readers to tell you directly if they are interested in your book.

If you already have a blog, use that. There is no need to create an additional site for each product. For e.g. You can put your book at http://dwaynecrooks.com/books/a-book-name. Using a single domain name means it can move with you as projects grow. Personal branding can always be rolled over to new projects. Many people are transitioning to personal branding so that their sites work better for all their projects.

Elements of a landing page

• A headline
  • Your headline should speak directly to a pain
  • For e.g. Do you want to learn how to build a RESTful API with Ruby on Rails that is fully tested and completely documented?
  • Don't spend too much time on the headline initially, just try for something that is clear and compelling
• An image and a more detailed description of what the product will be
  • Cover who you are, why you are writing it and when it will be available
  • An image of a book gets you to realize immediately that the page is about a book
• The opt-in form
  • Ask for name and email, or just email
  • Don't ask for anything more
  • To increase conversions you can give them something for entering their email address, for e.g. a free chapter of the book, a related article or a promise of a discount when the book comes out

Tell People

Take inventory of your audience, as well as your potential audience. Make a list of all the methods you have to reach people who would be interested in your book. Consider the following:

• Your blog
• Other blogs in your target market
• Friendships with bloggers in your target market
• Existing email lists
• Facebook friends
• Twitter followers
• Forums: Code School Forum, Upcase, Ionic
• Stack Overflow
• Quora
• Reddit
• Hacker News

The list is going to be the start of your plan to drive traffic to the landing page.

Three Epic Blog Posts

Demonstrate your expertise on the subject. What's the most valuable thing you have to teach? That's what the blog posts should include. Each post should be between 1,000 and 5,000 words long.

• Become an expert
• Show your style
• Capture leads: At the end of each post you need to tell people about your book and give them a way to express their interest via an opt-in form

IMPORTANT: Social media is a waste of time. Email is where it's at. Email marketing has been, by far, the most successful method he has used to sell books and promote products.

Reasons for favoring email:

1. You can push content to your readers.
2. It is easier to get a visitor to enter their email address than to subscribe to an RSS feed or follow you on a social platform.
3. Engagement quality is higher.
4. You have ownership.

Email Marketing Done Right

The goal of email marketing, when done right, is to provide immense value to your reader with each email. Don't let your list die.

Summary

1. Teach everything you know.
2. Test for demand by setting up a landing page.
3. Build audience by telling people.

Very nice! Thanks for sharing.