Learning how to self-publish means honing a whole lot of skills. But here are the 3 self-publishing skills that pay off forever.
Gary wasn't sure that writing his book was actually worth the effort. So maybe he should just completely give up at this point, well maybe not. That's the reason why in today's article, we can discuss 3 Self-Publishing Skills That Pay Off Forever.
So, the thing is that Gary lives in Pennsylvania and he writes self-help books. Now I can relate a little bit to Gary since I also have written books within this similar genre. Not his exact sub-genre but within a similar genre.
At the same time, I also lived in Pennsylvania when I was young. So, I would enjoy discussing a little bit of this with Gary. The thing was that Gary was trying to motivate himself to finish writing the very first book that he was doing on Psychology.
It was a psychological health self-help book. He was trying to get through the entire process there. But the problem was that he was so focused on this specific book and he didn't see how it was adding that much value to the world.
After all, there were so many other books on this particular subject. He was focused on this specific area; it was very short-term. So, the thing is that he had a few ideas in his book that were new ideas he really would like to get out into the world.
If it didn't, people would never discover these things to teach others. In other words, every one of the people around us. We are all experts at something even if that something is just being an expert at being yourself or knowing certain things that we know.
Many people in the world would benefit. In the case of Gary, he knew that there were quite a few of these points, or at least a few of them within his book. He was continuing to work on it so that he could get out into the world.
But then he was thinking that a good majority of the text was focused on things, skills, and self-help ideas that had already been explored in previous books. So, the first thing he tried to do to motivate himself was just to set and use the Pomodoro technique.
It is something that I teach also, which is that if you work for 25 minutes and take a 5-minute break from work, there are many apps to do. This is a very powerful technique. But the problem was that he didn't have a reason involved.
He didn't understand at a deep level what exactly the long-term impact could be. What exactly he was doing with writing this book and the consequences of it? So, he lost track and it worked for about a day but after that, not so much.
Check out this related article: 3 Self-Publishing Practices You Should Do EVERY DAY At Home!
The second thing was that he tried reading other self-help books in the same genre which I completely agree with. I think it's a wonderful idea to explore and read. One of the things you quickly notice is that a lot of these books also have the same ideas that other of these books happen to have.
So maybe there was somebody at some point in history who came up with your first original idea with some of the self-help things. But then they're moved in different forms and different voices as we move forward in time. New science research also tells us new things about the brain and the body.
To help us write better books that are in alignment with the actual latest scientific research that is coming out. But the thing was that after reading all of this, he still saw just so many ideas, and a lot of the ideas were things that he had included in his book.
He was thinking, well what's the point if you have all of these best-sellers that are out there that are sort of hitting upon the same idea? That left him feeling a bit helpless. So, what happened was that he was watching some of my YouTube videos.
As I always comment, you can get my free Self-Publishing Secrets Checklist to help you sort of see that long-term vision of where things are going and the steps to get there. So, he grabbed a copy of the checklist and as a result, you get on my email list and we go back and forth.
Sometimes with many people on my email list, we just email each other back and forth. Talk about what problems you have. We sort of look through different solutions and options like that.
For a lot of people who don't want to do a Discovery Session or connect through a 1-On-1 Program and don't ever have any intention of buying anything at any point which is just fine. But the ability just to go back and forth and discuss.
There were a couple of things that were missing in terms of Gary's situation. The first and biggest one was that his whole focus was all on the short run. That's one of the big reasons why we're specifically talking about 3 Self-Publishing Skills That Pay Off Forever.
So, one of the skills and I don't know it could be skills or it could benefit, it's hard to say which way but at least on the benefits front, one of them is if your books are optimized and you're putting them onto the market, this forever is the idea that those books will continue to sell every month.
Putting What You’ve Learned Into Practice
You'll continue to get income coming in. Passive income that you're doing absolutely nothing to get optimized books. Putting ads up, those ads run against the books earn more money than you pay in the ads. Then it is just turning the crank, that's one book.
Then how many years is the book going to sell? The thing that amazes me is that even books that are addressing really old subjects or even books that are not completely optimized will continue to sell in the long run.
As long as it's in the correct niche. That we're targeting that sub-niche and some of those keywords correctly. Some of the keywords he was considering for his title were not particularly optimal.
But this idea of once that book is optimized on the market, it provides an income. So, you have your first thing that's paying off forever. One of the big benefits on the self-publishing front.
The second thing is that the skills you learn regarding the marketing and sales side of things can be applied to any online business or any business in general. The skills that we're learning with self-publishing are not isolated to just self-publishing.
It's the very same skills that you're going to use if you decide to branch off if you want. For example, in Gary's case, he could teach courses or he could do one-on-one Coaching with different clients. There are all sorts of options available for him regarding this particular topic.
So, the skills that he learned are if you're listening to the podcast and you're following the YouTube channels that are addressing the subject. You're going through lots and lots of material on this. Reading the most popular books on the subject over some time.
If you're putting it into practice, you're going to get very good at this. And the other thing that's important to remember is that we don't learn everything. It takes a long time to consistently learn.
I would say probably using about a third immediately of your time focused on learning new skills. As you're implementing those skills which is one of the reasons why sometimes having a coach with my 1-On-1 Program clients, we specifically go back and forth.
To help you implement these skills concerning exactly your book. To make sure that you're optimizing it, and getting it ready to sell. Marketing it properly to maximize what's going to happen in the long run for your book.
Check out this related article: Top Self-Publishing Tools For Getting a Best Seller
But once you've learned these skills, you have them forever. This is something that so many people including Gary had lost sight of. But let's move on to the third point, the third key issue is the value that you pass on through your books now granted it's a benefit, not a skill.
But still, you get the point. The benefit is that you're giving these ideas or these stories that you have out into the world. You're able to take them and push them out there. These ideas that you're going in.
What you're functionally doing is that you're taking things that are in your head and through the form of writing. Your audiobooks and their paper versions are going out into the world in libraries and other places where they can reach thousands of people.
Maybe millions of people are exposed to the ideas that you have now. I suggest this is one of the reasons you have the responsibility to put things out into the world of quality that people want to read. Things that will move the world in a more positive direction.
This is one of the reasons there are some negative books. I would not recommend writing those sorts of books but positive books that are pushing the world in a positive direction.
Your stories are phenomenal, they give people in pain the ability to escape from that pain into a world or a universe that you're creating with your specific books. Or in self-help, you're able to help people deal and cope with the problems that they have. By learning the absolute best skills and hopefully some ideas that you have.
And you have to remember this is an important one even if other books have been written saying very similar or nearly identical things as to what you're saying, they haven't done it with your voice. Your marketing, so you're still going to be reaching people that have never even heard of those other authors.
I've heard it so many times, people say “Look, why should I write a book on this because somebody's already done it?” The answer is that it's because they aren't you. Your voice is unique and your stories are unique.
We're not talking about ripping off and writing exactly word for word what they have. But we are saying take the concepts and the ideas. Implement it and put it into your book in a way that hasn't been done before. You can do this and have impacts on generations to come.
Having The Book On The Market
Keep in mind if we're talking about a self-help book in particular when you read it and apply it, it will impact not just you. And this is the thing I was pointing out to Gary, it will impact your children, your family, your friends, and other people who may also read the book. All of these people will be getting benefits out of it.
For example, if you're doing a book on exercise and diet. By putting them into practice, you're able to live a longer life. So, the people who read the book and implement it, they're able to live a longer and healthier life.
Spending more time with their family and friends and making a difference in the world. So, you have to keep in mind that your books can pay off forever. The impact that these books can have is massive.
On the financial side where you're earning passive income. Both in terms of marketing skills and set you up to be in a great position in the future. If you wish to try other businesses or expand this business fully.
You're learning the fundamental concepts and a very easy way to get into the business and marketing sales side of the internet. Or in real life as well, not just in the digital world. Then also passing these ideas on to future generations.
It all starts with just breaking things down. Keeping this vision in mind but having these easy steps that I like to hit here. That's one reason why you should grab a copy of my free Self-Publishing Secrets Checklist that I have.
You pay absolutely nothing. We can come and dialogue with each other if you would like. You don't have to, there's no real requirement there. I provide lots of free value and strangely enough, after enough free value is done, some people like to buy and some people don't.
That is completely okay. I just need to make that clear because sometimes people will apologize. “Chris, I've been on your email list for so long. I've been getting all your amazing content but I just haven't ever purchased it.”
My point is look, there's no obligation at all. This is an important point; you should never apologize for choosing not to buy. My only thing is when you're ready, we're able to take things to the next level.
But if you're not ready, then it's best just to sit and learn until you are ready. That's an important point, you should never be pressured into anything. You should just make up your mind when you feel ready to go about moving to the next step if you want to supercharge your business
Check out this related article: Self-Publishing-An Introduction
But this free checklist is a fantastic start and it will also get you access to my amazing newsletter that goes out and direct contact with me as well. No cost whatsoever, all the value is completely free. So go ahead and check that out if you wish to move your self-publishing business.
If you wish to move your books forward if you can get a vision as well just like Gary did. But let's get back to Gary. So, Gary started writing again. He was still having some difficulty holding focus.
But what happened was that he started. He put out his long-term goals, the things that this book was going to give him, and future books. In reality, it's not writing one book, it's writing multiple books that are going to make the win. But at least getting that first book out.
He wrote it on the wall. He would have a vision board sort of idea. We have this idea of the vision. This is exactly what I want to achieve and why I want to do it, really honing in on the why behind it all.
That opened it up and that suddenly motivated him. So, what happened was that he was able to complete this book. The latest time I was following up with him, he was able to get the book actually onto the market.
Now he still has some optimization work to do. I see that the title and some of the keywords are still not exactly perfect. We need to get the ads going against it.
But the fact is that he's been doing an amazing job so far of making a whole lot of progress regarding his specific book. I can see that he has a really promising future ahead. Specifically, since he's targeting a very profitable niche.
That's using some of the keyword methods that I teach personally on how exactly to hone in on this to pull in that audience. But the thing is that so many writers, so many people who are interested in self-publishing, just don't understand.
They think that it's too late. And that's one of the reasons why I wanted to tell you specifically about The Once In A Lifetime Opportunity To Self-Publish Is Coming. You can learn more about it in my previous blog.