Writing and launching a Kindle book in two months – (Interview w/ Lauren Orsini, author of Build Your Anime Blog)

Posted on May 4, 2015 by Nathan Meunier

Geeking out about self-publishing and the writing life is one of my favorite things.

In the spirit of highlighting what other cool things folks are doing in the self-publishing space, I’ve got a great interview on tap today from my indie author pal Lauren Orsini, who just recently launched her awesome new book Build Your Anime blog: How To Get Started, Stand Out, and Make Money Writing About What You Love.

Lauren is a niche blogging wiz, and her latest self-published project is jam packed with not only her own expert insights into what it takes to build, launch, maintain, and monetize a niche blog, but also features interviews with a dozen other anime bloggers.

In this interview, we chat about her new book, how she managed to write and launch the thing in only TWO MONTHS, what it’s like being a hybrid (indie and traditional published) author, and much more!
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Self-publishing experiment: Changing your book title MID-LAUNCH! Crazy or BRILLIANT?

Posted on March 23, 2015 by Nathan Meunier

One of the things I REALLY love about self-publishing is that it gives you the speed, flexibility, and freedom to try bold experiments and turn on a dime to respond to how your book is performing. I’m a huge advocate of trying new ideas and using each book launch as an opportunity to experiment and test different theories. So I’m putting my own words into action this week, with a wild and crazy experiment: I’ve changed the title and subtitle of my newest book MID-LAUNCH!

So, you can now grab my new book Self-Publishing Success Strategies: 19 Tips To Sell More Kindle Books and Grow Your Audience for $0.99 right here!

Here’s a little more info about why I’m trying this experiment, and be sure to come back when I share the results in the next few weeks!

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Kindle Book Launch Success — Two Months Out and 2,600+ Sales

Posted on March 20, 2015 by Nathan Meunier

It’s been about two months and a week since I launched Write Short Kindle Books, which became a Kindle bestseller and has easily been my most successful book yet. I previously posted an extensive rundown of how my initial launch month went, but I figured it’d be useful to check-in with an update on how things have gone past the prime 30-day launch window.

Overall, things are starting to slow down a bit, but I’m really pleased with how it’s all going. I’m also nowhere near finished with promo plans and other ideas to keep the book out there and in the charts. Anyhow, let’s get to it!

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Writer Shop Talk: Are You an Indie Author?

Posted on March 17, 2015 by Nathan Meunier

It occurred to me when I set out on this new branch of my self-publishing adventure that my choice of using the phrase “Indie Author” in the title of my latest book — and an entire self-publishing series — might be a dangerous move. Some authors and writers get REALLY rankled when you attach the term “indie” to what they do.

I’m not sure if it’s having a negative impact on my books sales or overall perception of my work among some readers, but it has got me thinking more about the term “indie” and what it means to me.

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Building Launch Momentum for your Kindle Books (Without a HUGE Author Platform) Part I.

Posted on March 16, 2015 by Nathan Meunier

If you’ve got a massive author platform to tap into, it’s not hard to rocket your books up Amazon’s charts and move some serious units right from the get-go. But what if you’ve got less to work with? I’ve been at this for a while, and even with six books out (and more on the way), I’m still developing and expanding my platform to where I want it to be. That hasn’t stopped me from finding success, and it shouldn’t stop you.

My self-publishing manifesto, Write Short Kindle Books, launched just two months ago and quickly became an #1 Kindle best seller in several categories. It’s done really well, though my platform, mailing list, and social reach is a lot smaller than a lot of authors and writers out there. I just launched the follow-up book, Indie Author Success Strategies: 19 Tips to Boost Your Kindle Book Business, and I’m back to square one with building momentum for this new book. Seems an appropriate time, I think, to talk about book launches!

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Writer Shop Talk: Letting Your Book Drafts Percolate

Posted on February 16, 2015 by Nathan Meunier

A while ago, I decided that my creative and professional plans for 2015 would include launching a STUPID amount of quality books this year. Things are off to a great start, with Write Short Kindle Books becoming a #1 Kindle Bestseller in multiple categories and selling over 1,345 copies during launch month. As I continue to work on the final draft of several other books and outline upcoming projects, I decided to dig up a few old un-launched book projects that I had put on the shelf. Sometimes, if you’re me at least, you write books, set them aside, and then FORGET that you’ve written them. Whoops.

But a little time away from your drafts can be just the thing you need to realize that what you wrote actually isn’t utter garbage.

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Writer Shop Talk: 5 Alternative Ways to Write a Book

Posted on January 27, 2015 by Nathan Meunier

Words and ideas don’t come easily to everyone. Each of us has our own mental blocks and quirks that can inhibit our creative flow from time to time. As I delve into in great detail with the first book in my new Indie Author Success Series, writing books can be faster, easier, and a lot more fun than you might expect. Sometimes, however, you’ll want to embark on a new book project, but your brain is all clogged up. What to do?

You sit down to write, but the words, the ideas, the pages just don’t come freely. Don’t sweat it. Maybe it’s time to explore alternative creative ways to building a solid base of material to turn into a draft of your first book project. Here are a few clever approaches to teasing the knowledge from your noggin — or gleaning it from the heads of others — to get your early draft material down.

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Writer Shop Talk: Writing Targeted Books

Posted on January 22, 2015 by Nathan Meunier

I’m in the middle of a tight deadline week, so I’ll keep this short-ish [edit: HAHAHA YEAH RIGHT], but I wanted to take a quick moment to reflect on something I’ve mentioned in the past that was really driven home this week after watching the growing positive results of my latest book launch. You see, it’s been a long time since I’ve had a book project get as sticky in the Kindle Bestseller charts as Write Short Kindle Books has, so I wanted to quickly dissect that bit — and double down on the importance of RESEARCHING your niche BEFORE you write a book and also the importance of TARGETING your books to niches that have a strong audience.

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Writer Shop Talk: A Few Thoughts On Not Giving Up

Posted on January 20, 2015 by Nathan Meunier

I can think of a staggering number of moments throughout my decade-long journey as a professional writer where I could have just given up: on key projects, on my quest for certain dream gigs, on earning enough money to make a living from all of this, on so many things. Giving up is EASY. It’s also terribly boring.

Maybe it’s my stubbornness, or my drive to succeed despite the odds, but muscling down and sticking with things even when it feels like failure is imminent is a big part of why I’m able to keep writing professionally for a living. This week, and the past six months in general, has been a big reminder of that.

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Writer Shop Talk: Post-Launch Depression

Posted on December 3, 2014 by Nathan Meunier

It takes a tremendous amount of willpower, energy, and focus to create something. To take an idea and see it through to fruition, whether it’s a book, a game, or something else. It’s very easy to pour so much of yourself into a creative project and the gargantuan task of getting it out into the world that it exerts a sort of symbiotic energy drain on your being. Sometimes once your creative venture is cut loose and set free into the world, you’re left with a weird sense of loss. And it can be crippling.

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