So you want to write a book…One of two things might happen. You’ll put off writing that book until someday. Someday will come and that dream of yours will start to feel impossible. Or you’ll write the book and then feel lost. How do you sell copies of it? Where do you go from here? Was writing the novel a total waste?We don’t want you to feel stuck or stalled.We’re Amy Sparling and Ellie Hall, … Amy Sparling and Ellie Hall, hybrid authors, each with over ten years of experience in traditional and self-publishing. We created a roadmap that covers the writing, publishing, and promotion basics. It’s a starting point to help identify who you are as a writer, your goals, and create a plan to move forward as a fiction author.
We want you to succeed.
If you’re a new writer who hopes to see their name on the spine of a book soon or you have a novel listed on Amazon already and feel like you’re playing to an empty theater, we can help you build your dreams into reality.
Plus, with the bonus 50+ promotion strategies, you’ll learn how to best serve your readership and promote your book with authenticity, make meaningful connections, and generously add value by forming new ways of thinking about promo that will set you up to reach readers over time.
There’s no magic formula for success, but if you’re ready to write a book and share your work with the world the best time to start is now.
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This is a nice short read that addresses some topics about writing, publishing and promoting books. While the topic sounds like it encompasses a lot, keep in mind that it is a short book and it only touches upon these topics. Having said that I think there are some good pieces of advice in this book. I liked the writing style and the uplifting, encouraging and motivational tone of this book.
I think for new authors this one is definitely worth a try, especially if it stays as cheap as it is now. There are some good tips and advice and the motivational tone of the book makes you feel like you can do it. It also was clear these authors know what they’re talking about, with both of them having plenty of experience with writing, publishing and promoting and that shines through in the book. I like how the authors give a realistic and real image of the struggles with self publishing, but still make the book have that encouraging vibe. It was a nice balance.
This book is obviously meant as a way to get a vibe of what these authors know about the whole publishing process and hopefully get the reader to check out their website and course, but I thought this was well done. The course was mentioned, but not in an overly selling tone, but instead in a tasteful way. I also think it’s nice they have this book so you can get a feel for what they know and decide whether to take the course. Disclaimer I haven’t taken any of their courses, but I feel like that is the purpose of this book and like it can give you a feel for what these authors know. It’s like an appetizer.
Personally for me this book didn’t have too many new bits of information, but that makes sense as I do already know a lot about the whole process. I had expected to learn some new bits about writing and publishing, but as the promotion section of the book is the biggest it was mostly knowledge I already knew. I also thought there was a bit too much focus in the promotion section on in person connections, which I think are totally optional. Then again maybe because so few indie authors seem to use those methods, it’s worth pointing out, to me it seems there are some methods that could use more focus and were more important.
I also would’ve liked some sort of organizational overview in the 50 promotional ideas section. Now it’s just one big lists with tips ranging from every step of the process from building your community, making connections with authors to asking your beta readers for help, content for your newsletter and more. It just seemed a bit chaotic this way as there was no grouping like things for your newsletter or general promotional efforts or in person promotional efforts. I think some sort of grouping would make it easier to wade through all the tips. I thought some of these tips were more valuable or important than others and with this grouping it felt like the book didn’t acknowledge that. They do state to try what you can and what works for you.
This book is written from a we point of view like both authors talking to you. This makes sense as it’s written by two authors, but somehow it felt a bit weird to me. It also felt less personal somehow than a non-fiction book written by one author as then you usually have more specific examples, which the we style made less doable.
To summarize: This is a nice short helpful book for new authors. The whole book had this nice inspiration and motivational vibe, encouraging you to keep going. Nevertheless it also was real about the struggles involved, but this somehow didn’t detract from that encouraging vibe. There are some nice tidbits of information in this book. This book will mostly be helpful for new authors. For me personally there weren’t many new pieces of information. It mostly focuses on the promotional part. I found the 50 promotional tips to be a bit chaotic as there was no organization or grouping, just one big list. The we point of view was a bit weird and felt a bit less personal than an I point of view, but it makes sense here. There is a bit of promotion for their course, but I thought it was tastefully done and not in an overly sales-y tone, so that was nice and this book can probably help you decide whether to take their course. All in all I would recommend this to new authors, authors who’ve been doing this for a while now probably get less out this. But for the current price you can’t go wrong giving it a try.
Love that they are honest and transparent about the fact that they don’t know everything but are willing to share with you some of things they’ve learned.
I think my favorite part of this book is the questions they ask. You need to be reminded why you are doing what you are doing and leaving it at “It’s my dream!” isn’t going to help you through the tough times.
Definitely a nice afternoon read.