How to Kick Shiny Object Habit …

… and Get More Readers

rev your writing engines
copyright: Paramount

1 – The Success story –Rev Your Writing Engine:  Zero to 10K

I read a lot of blogs – too many probably, due to my shiny objects problem – but I can count on one hand the number I have shared or commented on. It has to be something  special, really useful, with recommendations that I can put into action fast.

Today I read just such an article. “Success Stories – Taking Action: How to beat the Overwhelm and Sell More Books”.  I feel compelled to share it with you (a link to the complete article is at the end of this post). Last year, after looking at it for 18 months and watching the free videos more than once, I finally bought the the course Your First 10K Readers. It wasn’t cheap, but I could pay monthly and I just knew that I would complete the work because the cost had been so dear.

Fast forward six months and the materials are sitting on the shelf, not because the course is no good – quite the opposite. It’s complete and thorough and well tested. It is full of useful, practical information. But remember that shiny object problem? I had simply moved onto the next thing. Do you do that? Buy courses and books and watch them gather dust?

That changes today. The author of Your First 10K Readers, Nick Stephenson, shared a success story chock full of advice – one piece of which put everything in perspective for me at last.

[bctt tweet=”The author of Your First 10K Readers, Nick Stephenson, shared a success story chock full of advice – one piece of which put everything in perspective for me at last. www.madisonmichael.net/rev-your-engines #amwriting ” username=”madisonmichael_”]

The story is from Tracey Pedersen who wrote 16 romance novels in just one year AND built an email following of over 10,000 readers. That is not a typo. She grew her list by 10K in one year, just as Nick had promised. And she did it with hard work, focus, a few Amazon and Facebook ads and Nick’s course.

2 – Recommendations – Rev Your Engines – Plan, track and Prioritize

When you read the complete article, you will learn that Tracey had numerous habits that worked for her to increase her writing productivity and her sales. But I want to focus on the big one for me.

Learn on the go – this is critical advice to a new or struggling romance author. There is so much to do as an indie author, so much to think about. The key to success according to Tracey – and now me – is to focus on the skills and habits that you need in order to  accomplish only what needs to get done NOW. Worry about later, well, later. This can help avoid shiny object syndrome and a lot of associated aggravation and expense.

Tracey said it like this: “The best way to ensure you take action is to learn new things only as you need to implement them. Does a doctor learn how to do brain surgery in his third month of medical school? Do builders learn the intricate details of laying a house slab on their first day? Nope. There’s a structure to their learning and self-publishing is the same.”

Plan and Track – I learned this one from the beginning of my writing journey, but couldn’t put it into actual until this year. I did it with the help of two resources, a Day Designer, which is the calendar /planning tool that finally worked for me and Create, the workbook on planning written by Meera Kothand. I use Meera’s recommendations and examples and complete a 90 day plan in Create, then I am able each day to identify the 3 top priorities for that day (batching, which I learned from Emily at myadaptablecareer.com comes in handy too).

3 – Resources:Useful Mechanics: The article, The Course and The Book

Tracy’s story and more about how she used Nick’s course are in this article, originally published by Nick.

More about his course and winning strategy appear in the video… https://www.yourfirst10kreaders.com/author-marketing-webinar . This is a link to the 3-part video Nick Stephenson has created outlining his “Three-Step Formula You can use to Automate Your Audience Building.”

The Video tackles free list-building strategies, reasons readers don’t buy and how to combat them and how to sell without being sleazy. He also offers his free eBook with registration. I cannot stress enough:  make the time to watch.

The book: Want to skip the videos and read Nick’s formula instead? His free eBook, “Reader Magnets: Build Your Author Platform and Sell more Books on Kindle (Book Marketing for Authors 1)” is available here. Did I mention that it’s free?

[bctt tweet=”Tracy’s action taking methods with Nick’s reader-magnet formula is a kick-ass, proven strategy for gaining more readers. Read Rev Your Writing Engines at www.madisonmichael.net/rev-your-engine” username=”madisonmichael_”]

Seriously, using Tracy’s action taking methods with Nick’s reader-magnet formula is a kick-ass, proven strategy for gaining more readers. (and no one is paying me to say any of that.)

Gem of the Week

I could easily argue that I just shared the gem of the week with you, but here is another. Alee King at Blogging Wizard shared a wonderful post about increasing your following on Pinterest. If you are not already taking advantage of Pinterest, this article will convince you to and then show you how. https://bloggingwizard.com/how-to-get-more-pinterest-followers/

Want to read Tracey’s Romance Novels?

Here is a link to her Amazon author page. Or enter the Thursday contest of the week on my blog  for a chance to win one of Tracey’s eBooks.

 

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