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Business Entrepreneurship Book Marketing

From First Draft to Bestseller: Publish a Book that Sells

A Step-by-Step Guide to Creating, Self-Publishing, and Marketing a High-Quality Print and eBook that Readers Will Love
Rating: 4.2 out of 54.2 (8 ratings)
93 students
Created by Jonathan LaPoma
Last updated 2/2021
English
English
30-Day Money-Back Guarantee

What you'll learn

  • How to find a professional editor for your book
  • How to format your book
  • How to find a cover designer and how to design the cover yourself
  • How to write a great book description
  • How to get lots of credible reviews
  • What to avoid when seeking reviews
  • How to find positive ways of dealing with negative reviews, and use them to grow as an author and a person
  • How to set up an ISBN and learn why you may or may not need one
  • How to set up your book's BISAC codes and learn why they're important
  • How to register copyright
  • How to set up your book's Goodreads and LibraryThing pages
  • How to run giveaways on Goodreads and LibraryThing
  • How to build your mailing list using InstaFreebie
  • How to use BookFunnel to send readers copies of your ebook
  • How to grow your mailing list and use it to sell more books
  • How to set up auto sequences on MailChimp
  • How to launch your book so you maximize sales on its publication day
  • How to sell books while retaining your professional and artistic integrity
  • Know whether it's better to use an aggregator such as Draft2Digital and SmashWords, or to sell directly on stores such as Amazon, iBooks, Barnes & Noble, and Kobo
  • How to make more money by setting up your ebook directly on Amazon, iBooks, Kobo, and NOOK
  • How to optimize your Amazon page by using effective keywords and categories, increasing your chances of having a bestseller
  • How to set up your Amazon Author Central page, and why it's important to do so
  • How to track your Amazon sales data for free using Book Report
  • How to avoid getting your book and reviews removed from Amazon
  • How to give your book away for free on Amazon permanently, and why this can be a great strategy to sell books
  • On Kobo, learn how to run promotions and sell your books to libraries using OverDrive
  • Know whether it's better for you to publish your print book with CreateSpace or IngramSpark
  • How to set up your print book on CreateSpace and IngramSpark
  • How to sell books using BookBub and Amazon ads
  • How to use the latest technology to target specific readers who'll love your book
  • How to sell books by running ads on websites such as Ereader News Today, Booksends, The Fussy Librarian, BookGorilla, etc...
  • How to increase your chances of being selected for a BookBub promotion (which is different from a BookBub ad)
  • How to convince booksellers to sell your books in their stores
  • How to increase your chances of getting your book into libraries
  • Why giving away your book for free can lead to more sales
  • Learn self-publishing lingo: "permafree," "going wide," "going direct," etc...
  • How to create free and beautiful Facebook banners, ad designs, and more using Canva
  • Where to meet other authors like you
  • Where to find a number of contests for self-published books, and how winning these can help further your writing career
  • How to avoid being scammed by crooks looking to cheat new authors
  • Tons of great tips on how to create, publish, and market a beautiful, high-quality book that sells
  • BONUS: How to turn your book or new story idea into a screenplay

Requirements

  • Only the dedication and desire to create a high-quality book that sells

Description

Follow a step-by-step guide with the most up-to-date and comprehensive information on how to create, self-publish, and market your book, taught by a certified teacher with over ten years of classroom experience. 

Have you written the first draft of a book but have no idea what to do with it? Do you dream of seeing your book sitting on the shelves of your favorite bookstore? Would you like to learn strategies that have helped many self-published authors quit their jobs and write full-time?

You're living during the best time ever to be an author. Due to advances in technology, now anyone can present their books to a worldwide audience with the click of a button. But, just because anyone can do it, that doesn't mean it's easy, nor does it guarantee that these authors will have any success. Every year, about million new books are published, adding to an already-saturated market. I created From First Draft to Bestseller to show beginning authors how they can create, self-publish, and market a beautiful, high-quality book that will stand out in this crowded market and attract readers using effective and proven strategies that have helped many self-published authors sell enough books to quit their jobs and write full-time.

This course will cover:

  • How to edit and format your book 
  • How to write an effective book blurb 
  • How to increase your "social proof" by getting lots of credible reviews 
  • How to build an engaged mailing list using auto sequences
  • How to sell your books online and in brick and mortar stores 
  • How to sell more books using Amazon Marketing Services and BookBub ads
  • How to avoid common pitfalls that trip up many beginning authors 
  • How to turn your book into a screenplay, and much, much more.


Just to be clear, this course does not give any strategies on how to write a bestselling book, but rather focuses on how to turn your manuscript into a potentially bestselling book on the Amazon charts.

I've included the most up-to-date, proven and effective strategies to help authors of all budgets create the highest-quality book possible and build their readership from zero by targeting hungry readers with laser-like accuracy. From First Draft to Bestseller stands out from other online self-publishing courses due to its size and quality of material. Though it's an 11+ hour course, it's packed with relevant and concentrated information without the filler and redundancies that bog down other courses. It's also taught by a certified teacher with over ten years of public school classroom experience, and it even includes a lesson on how to turn your book into a screenplay. 

I'm an award-winning, bestselling author of three independently published novels that have outsold authors such as Chuck Palahniuk, Michael Crichton, and Kurt Vonnegut on Amazon's Kindle store. Two of my three novels have been recommended by Kirkus Reviews and my most recent, The Summer of Crud, was selected to the Barnes & Noble B&N Press Picks list for February/March 2018. I've also written eleven screenplays that have won over 150 awards/honors in various international screenwriting competitions, and in July 2017, I optioned one of those screenplays to one of the producers of the American Pie and Final Destination films. I currently live in San Diego, CA and teach at a public secondary school.

Achieving success as a self-published author is often a long-term journey, but if you stay positive and apply the strategies you learn from this course, you’ll likely experience enough successes along the way to keep you energized and moving forward on that path where you’ll learn things about yourself you that will amaze and inspire you. I’d love the opportunity to show you how I’ve achieved a number of the goals I’ve set for myself as a writer, and how I can help you to achieve your own. I’m ready when you are to take that first step of this journey together.  

Who this course is for:

  • Beginning authors who are overwhelmed with what to do after they’ve written their books and want a step-by-step guide on how to build their audience from zero and turn their manuscript into a beautiful book that readers will want to buy
  • Veteran writers, both independently and traditionally published, who’d like up-to-date tips on how to effectively market their books in an ever-changing marketplace
  • Even if you haven't started writing your book, and you’d simply like to ease your anxiety by seeing a step-by-step guide on how to self-publish, you should check out From First Draft to Bestseller

Course content

6 sections • 44 lectures • 11h 25m total length

  • Preview11:36
  • Preview07:53
  • Preview18:12
  • Isn't Marketing a Book Considered "Selling Out?"
    05:02

  • How to Get Your Book Professionally Edited, and Why this is Critical
    16:15
  • How to Format your Book for eReaders and Print
    31:36
  • Cover Design
    12:43
  • Preview12:17
  • How to Get Lots of Credible Reviews, which Increase your "Social Proof"
    25:18
  • How to Deal with Negative Reviews in Positive Ways
    08:42
  • How to Register ISBNs for your Book
    19:05
  • Preview04:48
  • How to Register a Copyright (in the USA), and Why this is so Important
    09:51

  • An Introduction to eBook Aggregators: Draft2Digital vs. Smashwords
    09:02
  • How to "Go Direct" and Why Doing this Can Lead to More Sales
    03:09
  • How to Set up your Book to be Sold on Amazon's Kindle Store
    18:59
  • How to Determine your Book's Amazon Categories/Keywords (extremely important)
    36:54
  • How Enrolling your Book in KDP Select can Lead to Many More Sales
    11:35
  • How to Set up your Author Central and Book Report Accounts
    20:52
  • How to Set up your Book to Sell on Apple's iBooks Store
    07:57
  • How to Set up your Book to Sell on Barnes & Noble's NOOK Store
    10:32
  • How to Set up your Book to Sell on Kobo
    11:37
  • An Introduction to Print on Demand Technology: CreateSpace vs. IngramSpark
    17:05
  • How to Create and Sell Print Books on CreateSpace
    08:57
  • How to Create and Sell Print Books on IngramSpark
    15:38

  • How to Use Goodreads to Increase your Book's Visibility and Get More Readers
    26:54
  • How to Use LibraryThing to Increase your Book's Visibility and Get New Readers
    11:16
  • Grow your Mailing List Using Instafreebie and BookFunnel
    25:44
  • Preview05:45
  • How to Build a List and Landing Page in MailChimp
    22:33
  • How to Build Auto Sequences in MailChimp and Sell on Autopilot
    18:44
  • How to Grow your Mailing List with Email List Swaps
    06:21
  • How to Create an Engaging Facebook Author Page
    04:04
  • How to Create High-Quality, Free Designs using Canva
    09:25
  • How to Create BookBub Ads and Use them to Target New Readers and Sell More Books
    36:34
  • How to Create Amazon Marketing Services Ads and Use them to Sell More Books
    37:31
  • How to Sell Books using Websites like BookBub, BookSends, The Fussy Librarian...
    13:51
  • How to Convince Bookstores to Buy and Sell your Books
    15:50
  • How to Convince Librarians to Buy your Books for their Libraries
    05:24
  • Learn Launch Strategies to Maximize Sales/Visibility for your Book's Publication
    13:29
  • A Vetted List of Contests for Self-Published Books
    10:18
  • General Tips/Warnings for New Authors
    27:33

  • Screenwriting 101: The Basics for How to Turn your Book into a Great Screenplay
    35:06

  • Conclusion
    03:17

Instructor

Jonathan LaPoma
Award-Winning, Bestselling Author and Secondary Teacher
Jonathan LaPoma
  • 4.2 Instructor Rating
  • 8 Reviews
  • 93 Students
  • 1 Course

Jonathan LaPoma is an award-winning, bestselling author, optioned screenwriter, songwriter, and poet based in San Diego, CA. He's written three independently published novels, eleven screenplays that have won over 150 awards/honors in various screenwriting competitions, and hundreds of songs and poems.

LaPoma's novels Developing Minds: An American Ghost Story and Understanding the Alacrán are both #1 Amazon Bestsellers, outselling authors such as Neil Gaiman, Kurt Vonnegut, Michael Crichton, and Paulo Coelho on the Kindle store. His books have been recommended by Kirkus Reviews and Barnes & Noble (B&N Press Presents selection), and they've won awards in the 2015 Stargazer Literary Prizes and the 2016 and 2017 Florida Authors and Publishers Association President's Awards. His black comedy screenplay Harm for the Holidays was optioned by Warren Zide along with Wexlfish Pictures (American Pie, Final Destination, The Big Hit) in July 2017. LaPoma usually writes character-driven dramas that are equal parts dark and humorous, and his work often explores themes of alienation and misery as human constructions that can be overcome through self-understanding and the acceptance of suffering.

Also, since 2005, LaPoma has taught in over fifteen public schools in New York, Florida, and California, and he currently teaches at a secondary school in San Diego where he's beginning his ninth year.

LaPoma enjoys helping new authors overcome their fears and doubts so they can write the books they’re inspired to write.

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